Diya, born on April 3, 1944, died barely eight days to his 79th birthday. Described by many as a no-nonsense military officer, Diya was an alumnus of the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, Command and Staff College, Jaji, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru and the United States Army School of Infantry. Having fought in the Nigeria/Biafra civil war on the side of the Federal Government, Diya had a great career in the military, culminating in his appointment as military governor of his native Ogun State in 1984.
In seasons of promotions driven purely on competence, the infantry officer was appointed General Officer Commanding of the 82 Division, Enugu, from 1991 to 1993 until his appointment as Chief of Defence Staff and later, Chief of General Staff by the then despot, Abacha. Diya became Vice Chairman of the then highly influential Provisional Ruling Council in 1996, a position he held until he was linked with a phantom coup which led to his arrest and subsequent trial for treason in 1997.
It was learnt that another ally of the late despot of an alleged coup by Diya alongside other military officers largely of South-West extraction to overthrow him.
For a man drunk on autocracy, Abacha wasted no time in constituting a military tribunal chaired by Major General Victor Malu to put Diya, former Minister of Works and Housing, General Abdulkarim Adisa, ex-Communications Minister, Gen Tajudeen Olarenwaju, Chief Security Officer to Diya, Major Seun Fadipe among others on trial.
As it turned out, the Malu-led tribunal found Diya and others guilty and they were sentenced to death by firing squad. But in a miraculous twist of fate Abacha died in controversial circumstances in 1998 before the date slated for the execution of Diya and his alleged fellow coup plotters.
Abacha successor, Major General Abdulsalami Abubakar, later released Diya nd others to the joy of his family members, associates in the military and legal profession for the former number two man acquired a law degree from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, attended the Nigerian Law School and called to bar as solicitor and advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
Diya reportedly told told the military tribunal that Lt Gen Ishaya Bamaiyi started the conversation on the need get rid of the Abacha regime, stressing that his comment was neither in support nor an indication of his acceptance that the dark-goggled general ought to give way at the Aso Rock Villa; a claim purportedly dismissed by Bamaiyi who accused Diya of being the initiator, coordinator and executor of the coup.
Appearing before the Justice Chukwudifu Oputa Commission on Human Rights violations, Bamaiyi noted, “contrary to the allegations that the 1997 December coup was a mere set-up in order to humiliate Lt Gen Oladipo Diya and others who are referred to by General Diya in his petition as my ethnic grouping in the army, the coup was in fact initiated by Diya who independently and personally co-opted officers from his ethnic group for its execution.”
Years later at the launch of his memoir, “Vindication of a General,” Bamaiyi reiterated his earlier stand on Diya as a man who had intent to succeed Abacha via a coup.
Bamaiyi claimed that Diya often complained that Abacha “was not doing well.”
“On one such visits, at his Ikeja residence, he (Diya) mentioned how Gen. Abacha had not been doing well. He made the statement during the next visit, and I asked what the problem was,” Bamaiyi, who was then in charge of Lagos garrison command, wrote in the book
