Detained in 1983 for leaking a cøup against Shagari, k!lled in 1986 for concealing a coup against Babangida
Sometimes, life is not fair. That was the case of Major Daniel Idowu Bamidele, a fine military officer who was first detained for revealing a plot to overthrow President Shehu Shagari in 1983 and later exēcüted for keeping quiet and failing to leak a plot to overthrow the government of Ibrahim Babangida allegedly by Mamman Vatsa.
His first close shave with dæth occurred in October 1983 when as a loyal officer, he heard of a plan to remove Shagari from office. Immediately he returned to Jos from his trip to Kaduna, he went to Major General Muhammadu Buhari, who was then his General Officer Commanding (GOC) and told the latter what he heard, not knowing that Buhari was even a prime plotter of the cøup.
Exactly one week after, Bamidele was arrested and brought to Lagos, detained by the Directorate of Military Intelligence at Tego Barracks on claims that he was plotting to overthrow Shagari. He faced intense interrogation, fake witnesses were paraded. Nobody knew that this was a ploy to distract the public from the real plot which continued underground with the full involvement of those interrogating Bamidele.
Bamidele was released on November 25, 1983, when nothing was found to nail him. He returned to Jos. Then, suddenly, it happened. Shagari was overthrown and Buhari, his own GOC, to whom he had reported the plot, emerged as the new Head of State!
His name came up for retirement in 1984, but Buhari objected to it knowing that Bamidele was innocent and was only used to achieve a successful plot.
For Bamidele, it was a huge lesson learnt. He would forever keep his mouth sealed to save himself in the future. Thus, when he learnt about the alleged plot by Mamman Vatsa against Ibrahim Babangida in 1986, he kept his mouth. Unknown to him, this was his undoing.
Bamidele was implicated simply because he was at a meeting with other Army officers where Babangida was criticized though there were no plans against the government at the meeting.
Here is what Bamidele told the tribunal that tried him in 1986: “I heard of the 1983 cøup planning, told my GOC General Buhari who detained me for two weeks in Lagos. Instead of a pat on the back, I received a stāb. How then do you expect me to report this one? This tr!al marks the eclipse of my brilliant and unblemished career of 19 years. I fought in the civil wār with the ability it pleased God to give me. It is unfortunate that I’m being conv!cted for something which I have had to stop on two occasions. This is not self adulation but a sincere summary of the qualities inherent in me. It is an irony of fate that the president of the tribunal who in 1964 felt that I was good enough to take training in the UK is now saddled with the duty of showing me the exit from the force and the world.”
He faced a firing squad with others including Vatsa on March 5, 1986.
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