Posted by Yekini Jimoh, Ilorin on
FORMER Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Ishaya Bamaiyi (rtd.), has denied that his arrest and detention was connected with his ambition to seize power when former head of state, General Sani Abacha, died.
FORMER Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Ishaya Bamaiyi (rtd.), has denied that his arrest and detention was connected with his ambition to seize power when former head of state, General Sani Abacha, died.
Speaking with journalists in Ilorin, Kwara State, during a thanksgiving service organised by the United Missionary Church of Africa (UMCA) for his release after nine years of incarceration, Bamaiyi said he was not an over-ambitious army officer.
'When General Sani Abacha died, I was given power but I rejected it. You can find that out. 'About my arrest, I am not against former President Olusegun Obasanjo. He did what he was told to do by Generals from my own part of the country. As a matter of fact, he could not turn them down for his own survival.
'Today, I am vindicated because if we had not brought in a civilian as president in 1999, we would not be where we are today. I don't think that any of them represented the military more than I did, but I advised that we should not bring in a military man as president. And that was why I was put in prison.
'I have no regrets doing so. If I have to do it all over again, I will still stick to that advice,' he said. Speaking on the administration of President Umaru Yar'Adua, Bamaiyi said the President was doing well because a lot of damage had been done before he got to power, stressing that what was damaged in nine years could not be repaired in two.
He called on Nigerians to be patient with President Yar'Adua and support him on the task ahead.