How Abacha Narrowly Escaped Diya’s Abduction In 1997 – Fadipe

Seun Fadipe a former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Lt-Gen Oladipo Diya has recounted how late ex-military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, escaped a planned abduction in Enugu State in 1997. Fadipe claimed that Diya and his co-travellers planned to abduct Abacha and force him to resign in Enugu. However, Abacha discovered the plot and aborted the trip at the last hour. Fadipe stated this during an appearance on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television. He stated that Abacha was doing well in power but things went haywire because he wanted to transmit to a civilian regime. He said, “There was a coup, whether it was now a phantom one or it was a setup, it’s immaterial now because that’s the problem I had with my boss until he died. I was a major, if I wanted to be involved in a coup as a major, it would be a violent coup because there was no way I would do a palace coup because I had a lot of seniors ahead of me. I never planned any coup, I never intended to plan any coup but I got involved through my boss. “As of that time, Abacha was doing well but because he wanted to transmit to a civilian regime, things went haywire.”