Sunday, 2 November 2014

‘I knew about his plans': Buhari opens up on IBB’s 1985 coup

Gen. Muhammadu Buhari has been speaking on events leading to his ouster has the Head of State by former military president, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida.
Buhari who spoke with the CableNG, an online news platform, said he knew that Babangida was planning to overthrow him.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential aspirant said he went ahead to discuss the issue with IBB before the latter went ahead to carry out the 1985 coup d’etat.
According to him, “It is true that I learnt he was planning a coup against me. And I sat and discussed it with him in my office.
“He brought the news that he went to Kano and people complained that I pulled a pistol during a council meeting. I said Ibro? I called him Ibro because I was just senior to him by a few months? I said whoever wants to sit on this chair let him come and sit here. And he decided to do it.”
Buhari who himself came into power after overthrowing a duly elected democratic government led by Alhaji Shehu Shagari said he became Head of State without bloodshed.
“But when I came in, there was no bloodshed. I think a couple of policemen were killed and [Brigadier Ibrahim] Bako also died in an ambush.
“But deliberately, nobody was killed. I was in the front, the real front in the Nigerian civil war. I had seen enough of death and I know what God means by human life. Any human being, God values their life. And anybody who hopes to meet God, he should be careful about killing.
“When there is law and due process of law took place, the question is clear. Like the cocaine convicts that were executed, the decision was taken in Supreme Military Council.”

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