Late Chief Lamidi Adedibu’swife, Bose spoke with Okoeki Oziegbe at her Molete residence Ibadan. She throwslight on her husband’s effort to get Abiola out of prison and the allegation that the strong man of Ibadan politics betrayed the June 12 struggle. Excerpts:
My name is Alhaja Chief (Mrs) Modinat Bosede Adedibu, the Yeyelua ofIbadanland and so many other titles.
There is no way you talkabout June 12 without mentioning the role played by Baba Adedibu, and myself ashis wife, I also played my little part.
As a wife Isupported him in whatever he was doing. I disagreed with himinitially about June 12. When Abiola was incarcerated; I toldhim we must get the mandate at all cost. But he asked ‘which mandate, can youtie someone’s hands and legs and tell him at the same time to fight’.
Baba said he has workedwith Awolowo and so many other people and that he has to get Abiola out firstbefore he starts to fight. “How can MKO be incarcerated and youare shouting June 12, what June 12 is that”, he queried.
According to him June 12would be realized when Abiola is outside not when he is locked up somewhere. Isaw reason with him; as an experienced person he knows you can not fight whenyou are tied down, but we wanted to fight to realize the mandate. He wantedAbiola to come out first before any fight. He was working for the release ofAbiola and I gave him all the support that I could.
He made so many effortsbefore the problem started, Shonekan was the head of the interim government, PaAdedibu was not comfortable with the interim arrangement because nobody votedfor interim government.
Everybody voted forBashorun M.K.O. Abiola. And before Abiola does anything he will call my husbandfirst and my husband will advice him. But the advice that my husband gave himthat he did not follow because of other people that surrounded him led to hisincarceration.
He told my husband thathe was going to announce himself as president, Baba advised him not to do it.Adedibu advised him instead that the matter should be taken to theinternational level. But Abiola refused because of people surrounding him, theNADECO people.
When he was apprehended,any court they take him to, Pa Adedibu will also be present there. The last oneI saw was when MKO wrote a letter in a small piece ofpaper to my husband which he handed over to Baba in the court. He told myhusband in the letter that, this people don’t like us, do anything possible to getme out of this place.
When my husband came backto Ibadan he met Aare Arisekola. Abacha was a very close friend to Aare. Myhusband and Arisekola now went to see Abacha at Abuja. Abacha told my husbandthat he knows MKO, that Abiola will not agree to whatever they discuss. Myhusband told him it is not true and showed Abacha the letter Abiola wrote him inthe court. It was when my husband showed Arisekola the letter that he agreed tofollow him to Abacha, that convinced Abacha that it was true.
Abacha now said, “Baba,you know I respect you so much, I knowBashorun so well, you know I am not his friend, it isBabangida that is MKO’s friend”. He said he wasn’t the one holding him upwhere he was.
My husband now went tosee General Oladipo Diya, who was then second in command. Diya was doing whathe could as a Yorubaman to get Abiola released, he tried. It was Diya thattold Baba that he should stay on Abacha’s neck. So even when Abacha was tellingmy husband that MKO will not agree, my husband insisted that he would agreebecause he gave him a note saying ‘anything to get him out of the place’. Myhusband even prostrated for Abacha.
I followed them to Abuja,though I did not follow them to the Villa but when myhusband came back to the hotel, he told me everything that happened. Abachawould always tell Arisekola to excuse them anytime they want to discuss, becauseaccording to him, Arisekola was not a politician.
My husband prostratedbefore Abacha promising he would stand surety for Abiola. Abacha now called forDiya and told him to go and do anything Baba wants; General Diya was very, veryhappy.
It was a weekend and theJudge handling Abiola’s case was not in Abuja, Diya now ordered two planes tobe looking for him to give the bail, eventually they got the judge.
We were all in Abuja, itwas very tough, going up and down. My husband now called, the late AlhajaKudirat, Abiola’s wife to come to the court. She refused and told my husband toget MKO’s lawyer, G.O.K. Ajayi and another lawyer as well as Abiola’s personaldoctor, Dr. Ore. They now insisted that they don’t want conditional bail.
Baba now told her onphone that they should let MKO come out first, that once he is out nobody canstop him but he must come out first. When Alhaja Kudirat did not agree with myhusband, he now called Abiola’s other wife, Alhaja Bisi who said they shouldlet him come out first whether conditional or not, he should just come out.
Everybody now went tocourt not knowing that they have mobilized people to come to the court. Immediatelymy husband got to court with everybody there; when the Judge came out and readout the conditions attached to the bail which includes that Abiola can nottravel out, hell was let loose.
If you see the mob, myhusband nearly died that day, they accused him of collecting money from Abacha.But before they could attack him, one man took my husband out of the court.They threw missiles at him, shouting “ole, ole, he has collected moneyfrom Abacha, he wants to give him conditional bail.”
That was when my husbandsaid, okay, since God has saved him, he would just sit down peacefully on hisown, that is like saying he has removed his hands from the matter.
That same night Abachacalled him, I was the one that picked the call in the Hotel atAbuja because my husband had to be drugged before he could sleep that day, hiseyes were reddish, the stress was much.
Abacha now told my husbandon the phone that, “Baba didn’t I tell you, I toldyou, that man, let him stay there, don’t worry Baba”, that was all. Well,God knows everything, but I am very sure, maybe hewouldn’t have died like that.
After that time, Abachacalled the Muslim elders and told them that they should pray. You know theproblems were too much then, NADECO, this and that, bombs going off everywhere.He now told them to pray against whatever was disturbing the country.
We did our own prayershere, every state. Arisekola now went to Abuja to tell Abacha that we haveconcluded the prayers in Oyo, Osun, Ogun. My husband was supposed to see Abachaa day before. I was not around; I travelled and came backa day before; but he told me on phone that he has an appointment with Abacha. Iwas however not too comfortable with his going to see Abacha again.
It was that same nightthat somebody called us from the Villa saying Abacha had died. My husband didnot believethe story and told the person so, saying how cansomebody he spoke with the previous day who asked him to see him that same daydie. The next thing Arisekola called to tell Baba he was going to Abujaimmediately and Baba asked him what happened that he should wait for both ofthem to go together. But Arisekola told him that he has chartered a flight totake him down to Kano. Baba asked him what happened and he told Baba it appearshis friend Abacha had died.
Everybody in the housewas disorganised, running helter-skelter, because every time they use to attackus in this house because they saw us as supporters of Abacha especially sinceafter the MKO court incident when Baba decided to stay on his own.
My husband and Arisekolawere very close and Arisekola was a friend of Abacha. They thought my husbandwas also a friend of Abacha. They thought Baba had betrayed and abandonedAbiola. But after the ugly court incident where my husband was almost mobbed,my husband stayed away from making any further effort at interfering in theAbiola matter.
I think NADECO wassincere in its own approach to the struggle. I believe that was how theythought best to fight the course. Remember it was a military regime, theycouldn’t have done more than what they did. They tried their best to actualisethe mandate, they meant well, at least 70 per cent of them were sincerealthough some of them later took up appointment with the same government they
were then fighting.