
Major Seun Fadipe (retd), former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Lt-Gen Oladipo Diya, has recounted how the late military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, narrowly escaped an abduction plot in Enugu State in 1997. Fadipe shared this during an appearance on *Inside Sources with Laolu Akande*, a socio-political program aired on Channels Television.
According to Fadipe, who served as CSO to Diya, Nigeria’s then Chief of General Staff and de facto vice president under Abacha’s military regime, the plot involved an attempt by Diya and others to abduct Abacha and force his resignation. However, Abacha reportedly received intelligence about the plan and canceled his trip to Enugu at the last moment, thereby averting the incident.
“There was a coup—whether it was a phantom one or a setup is immaterial now,” Fadipe remarked. He explained that his connection to the alleged plot stemmed from his boss’s involvement. “I was a major at the time. If I were to be involved in a coup, it would have been a violent one because there was no way I could organize a palace coup with so many seniors ahead of me. I never planned or intended to plan a coup.”
Fadipe suggested that tensions in the regime escalated when Abacha sought to transition from military to civilian rule. “At that time, Abacha was doing well, but because he wanted to transmit to a civilian regime, things went haywire,” he said.
The revelations provide further insight into the internal struggles and political intrigues that characterized Nigeria’s military leadership during the 1990s, a period marked by coups and power struggles.
Watch below.
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