Former heads of state, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar will attend the launching of a book examining Nigeria’s harrowing era of military coups.
Gatekeepers News reports that Bello Fadile, a retired colonel in Nigerian army is launching the book titled ‘Nine Lives: The Bello-Fadile Memoirs’.
Ibrahim Babangida wrote the book’s foreword and will be a grand patron of the day at the launch, while Abdulsalami Abubakar will be the chairman of the occasion.
Also, Adebayo, a former presidential candidate under the Social Democratic Party SDP), will be the chief book presenter, with Agbo Jerry Madaki as the reviewer.
Bello Fadile is a respected Nigerian army intelligence officer with a doctorate in law. He was a key figure in 1995 coup against Sani Abacha regime.
Fadile was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death in the saga that implicated dozens of prominent Nigerians, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Shehu Yar’Adua, and Lawan Gwadabe.
The book details a personal account of the ordeal and a chronology of coups in Nigeria.
An excerpt from the book reads, “25 years ago, in the wee hours of March 4, 1999, I heard a tap, tap, tap on my cell window and a voice calling, ‘Colonel! Colonel!! Wake up.’ I got up and went closer. Then I saw the warder on duty, a retired Warrant Officer of the Nigerian Army now working for the Nigeria Prison Services.”
“He said, ‘Oga, you are free; congratulations, sir, start packing your things; you are going home.’ I asked him, ‘What did you just say?’ He replied, ‘Yes sir, you are to be released today, sir.’ I believed him and rushed to the general open cell opposite mine to tell the two other inmates who were on a three-day dry fasting with me, seeking God’s intervention in my situation.”
“It was the beginning of the third day. I told them the good news, and they shouted, ‘Hallelujah!’ We stood up and joined hands to sing: ‘God is able, abundantly able, to deliver and to save; The Lord is able, abundantly able, to deliver those who trust in Him. Hallelujah!’”
