How I Managed The Burial Of Abiola As Lagos Governor
OpenLife Nigeria reproduces an earlier interview published in Daily Trust newspaper in which General Buba Marwa, who was Lagos State governor when Chief Moshood Abiola died in 1998, recalls his experience wading through angry crowd of June 12 enthusiasts to get the late Concord Newspaper publisher buried .
General Buba Marwa, who clocked 72 on September 9, is currently the Chairman, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA.
His narratives reveal the undercurrent that played out the day Abiola passed away
The second most memorable moment (as Governor of Lagos) would have to be a collection of events around the time of late MKO Abiola’s death. He died when I was in Abuja, where I was for a Council of State meeting. Around 5pm, I got a call from the State House that I should see the Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar.
So I went, and he told me what happened. I told him I would need a plane to go back, because I knew the place would be on fire. That night, when we got to Lagos, even to get to the Governor’s Lodge on Victoria Island, we had to take Mile 12 and Apapa. Even at that, we had to do a little shooting in the air to secure the road.
The situation soon degenerated, and I called a security meeting that involved clerics. By the next day, it had become so bad, and they were going after northerners, saying that we have killed Abiola. So I said I have to get to the streets, and my people said that was not safe.
I agreed with the risk, and still went out after I said that I’ve excused those who don’t want to follow. But we went, and through the grace of God, we were able to douse the violence.
The other was when we went out for a condolence visit to the Abiola household. Youths took over the whole house, but I was determined that this is Lagos, and I was the Military Administrator, and no-one could prevent me from paying condolence.
And I knew Abiola personally, because he supported us in sports and education in Borno State. That day, it was after the Juma’at prayer, and the news had gone round, and the BBC and CNN reporters who couldn’t go because of fear, came to join our convoy.
I sent the advance team, and we were on our way. But they rushed back and stopped the convoy, asking us to turn back. I looked back, the reporters, and all the media people, and I said ‘let’s proceed’. When we were about 300 meters to the house, there was no way we could drive on, because of the massive crowd.
So I stepped down and advanced towards the gate on foot. The gate closed behind us, and some youths locked it, and climbed atop the rungs. I was with Abubakar Tsav, who was my Commissioner of Police, and with SSS personnel.
We found our way into the compound, but they prevented others from going in. The Commissioner of Police didn’t go, the SSS didn’t go, my orderly and ADC too didn’t, but I did.
And the burial, too, was another interesting one. We got a report that the body would be seized by NADECO, to do their own burial. So, in conjunction with Abuja, it was planned that there would be two planes. One would be a decoy, and another would actually convey the body.
The decoy plane would land and taxi to the presidential wing, where we positioned the ambulance and the media, to present the impression that since the ambulance was there, he would be there too. But the actual plane was five minutes behind.
After all that, even the burial venue leaked, and we had to change it that same night. By the grace of God, it went smoothly.”
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