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MAJOR GENERAL
NN MADZA:
THE MAN WHO
JAILED OBASANJO
Nigeria, no doubt is a country where anything goes. Anything can happen, a country full of surprises.
The recent announcement of officers promoted by the Nigerian Army was not a surprise to me; it shows the kind of
system they run in that country. It is a country where innocent, professional and fine officers lose their jobs
and the boot-lickers, back-bitters get to the top. It is frustrating, agonizing and discouraging. After reading
the news of Major-General NN Madza's promotion, I began to wonder if that country is worth dying for.
Colonel Ajayi, Bello Fadile and others who were arrested and tried for the 1995 coup would now see Madza, in
service with two stars on his shoulder, while they were arrested, tried and jailed for a coup they did not plan.
They ended their career when they did not plan for it. I saw these men at the Human Rights Violations
Investigation Commission, presenting their cases. They were passionate; they wanted to go back to their love,
the military. Little did they know that the Justice Oputa-led Commission was a charade. Another wasteful venture
of the Obasanjo-led government.
I feel sorry for all the officers arrested and tried for that 1995 coup. Col Ajayi was Ishaya Bamaiyi 2-I-C at
the Lagos Garrison Command, now 81 Division. He became a coup plotter because he refused to lie about an officers
military record. There was an officer too who was arrested because he defended someone Abacha had wanted to jail
long time ago.
Whether Obasanjo and Yar'Adua knew of a coup against Abacha is left for Obasanjo to defend, but these Officers
were not in control of any command, yet they were arrested and threw out of the military like that, while the
like of Nathaniel Madza is now being decorated as a two-star General is appalling.
WHO IS MAJOR-GENERAL NN MADZA?
The newly decorated two-star General is a TIV man, an officer in the Artillery corps and also a lawyer.
He was the Judge Advocate of the 1995 coup. He was the player in the trial of Dr. Beko Ransome Kuti,
Kunle Ajibade, Chris Anyanwu, Ben Charles Obi and others. The Judge Advocate is more or less the Judge of the
military Tribunal. He interprets the law and punishment to the Court's President. In actual fact, it was Madza
who sentenced the late Yar'Adua, Obasanjo, and others to death and life imprisonment respectively.
When Col. Lawan Gwadabe, the man believed to have master-minded the coup was first arrested, he was put in
Colonel NN Madza's custody, and one 2nd Lieutenant Richard Emouve was detailed to watch him. At first, no one
knew the whereabout of Lawan Gwadabe, until his uncle came on air to tell the whole world that Lawan Gwadabe had
been arrested in relation to a coup plot. This angered Abacha, and put Madza in trouble. To cover his laxity,
Madza came up with a report that the young Richard aided Lawan Gwadabe to escape and in the process they were
both arrested. From then, Richard, a young and brilliant officer, who just started his career, joined the league
of coup plotters. But what was not known then to the public, but known to Richard and this boss, Madza was that
Madza was interested in dating Richard's fiancée who is not Richard's wife. Madza saw Richard as an obstacle to
getting the lady, and he seized the opportunity now to settle score. It is a known fact that the hew two-star
General likes anything in skirts, even to a fault.
Richard was arrested and transferred to Lagos. He was detained at the inter-center, under the Ikoyi cemetery. The
Former Head of State General Obasanjo was also detained in a room opposite Richard's at the inter-centre. Richard
was tortured with electric prod to sign a prepared statement that he aided Gwadabe, he refused. At the trial,
Lawan Gwadabe, was surprised to see the poor young officer, he pleaded for him. According to sources at the trial
Gwadabe said that now that they have got him, they should leave the poor, innocent boy alone.
2nd Lieutenant Emouve was found guilty of the offence he never committed and jailed. He served his term at the
Kano prison. And Col. Madza went back to Kakuri a happy man. Though he is an Artillery Officer, he is always
involved in trials of coup plotters. He was part of the prosecution team of the Gideon Orkar trial. This man also
ensured that Col. Jalo of the Alamala in Abeokuta got roped in the 1997 Diya/Bamaiyi coup. His plot was to become
the most senior TIV man in the Nigerian Army Artillery Corps and he got it.
When Obasanjo came in, in 1999 over 300 Military officers who had held political offices were retired.
Surprising, Madza rather than get the boot got another feather, he was not retired, and he was promoted. Madza
was the Chairman of the National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA) task Force under Abacha. How he escaped
retirement was simple. The younger brother of the Chief of Army Staff then, Lt. General Victor Malu (rtd) was a
member of the Task Force headed by Madza. Malu Junior saved Madza. While their colleagues were sent packing even
at Captain and Major level, Malu's younger brother remained in the military, and then he was serving at the Ilese
Barracks in Ijebu.
The question is that where is Zakari Biu, the notorious Police officer connected with Bagauda Kaltho's death.
Bagauda Kaltho was a journalist with The News magazine who disappeared and has not been found to date. Zakari Biu
has gone into oblivion. No one knows where he is. It is not certain if he is still in the Nigeria Police.
President Obasanjo once asked Musiliu Smith, former Inspector general of Police if Biu is still with the Police.
With NN Madza's promotion, there is an indication that nothing has changed in the Nigerian Military.
It is still a military of compromise, where injustice still reigns supreme.
Now it was Madza's gain and others losses.
Congrats Major-General NN Madza.
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