By BASHIR ADEFAKA
Announcement that 159 Nigerians including officers convicted during the Diya’s coup 1997, Gideon Okar coup of 1990 and two governors serving jail terms for corruption has been reacted to by some of the beneficiaries, who sang praises to God and expressed unreserved gratitude to the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, for his consideration.
Former Minister of Communications during the General Sani Abacha regime and one of Buhari’s successors as General Officer Commanding, GOC, Third Mechanised Division Nigerian Army, Jos, Major General Tajudeen Olanrewaju, who is one of the living beneficiaries, thanked the President in a telephone conversation with The DEFENDER in the early hours of Friday.
General Olanrewaju thanking people that stood with him throughout the time of the tribulations said he will forever be grateful especially to President Muhammadu Buhari, who has always been programmed by the Almighty Allah to finish all newly created or abandoned projects including this our own pardon.
Reacting to the development, the former Defence Adviser to the Nigerian President in Moscow, Russia, said: “Everybody received the news very well. Everybody was happy. They just give the glory to Almighty God and they also thank President Muhammadu Buhari and the Council of State for the grant of this pardon. They show appreciation to God for fulfilling one of their prayers that God should grant their father the courage and good health to get the pardon and continue with his life,” he said.
Thanking The DEFENDER, General Olanrewaju said: “I say thank you very much for always standing with us, you have one of the few and we will continue to appreciate you, for your health, for your time, for your support and you did very well for me and for us. May God continue to bless you too. I have to be grateful to you because, you know the beginning, you know the middle and you know the end of it and then all along you have been pursuing the matter and that is why you are one of the few that I have to write something like that for.”
Also speaking to The DEFENDER, widow of late Lt. Col. Oyewole Oyebanji Akiyode, who died as a result of torture in military incarceration during the period, Ruth Akiyode sang to appreciate God.
“Oluwa o se o! Oluwa o se o!! Oluwa o seun seun seung!!!” She screamed in joy although with some presence of emotions, saying she was happy that she did not lose all and said that her husband was not alive to witness this job of his successful pardon.
“This pardon is coming at a good time because, this time around I have going through things. I have wept, wept and wept. It was just yesterday (Thursday) that I was telling somebody that if my husband is alive, all the challenges I am facing now will not happen to me. I bless the name of the Lord,” Ruth Akiyode said.
A President Muhammadu Buhari-led meeting of the Council of State, on Thursday April 14, 2022, granted state pardon to 159 beneficiaries including General Tajudeen Olanrewaju (Rtd), his military aide, Lieutenant Colonel Oluwole Oyebanji Akiyode, who were convicted along with former Chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen. Oladipo Diya, in 1997 over a coup charges, and all the junior officers convicted over the 1990 abortive Gideon Orkar coup also made the list, even as two former Governors Joshua Dariye (Plateau) and Jolly Nyame (Taraba) states were also pardoned.
