Kukasheka said: “A simple phone call to him (General Akinyemi) to roll out the tanks and General Dambazau would have been head of state, but he resisted that temptation.”
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
There was a plot to remove ex-President Goodluck Jonathan from office in 2010 through a coup d’etat, reveals a retired Nigerian Army general, Usman Kukasheka.
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Usman Kukasheka voluntarily retired in 2019 from the Army after serving for many years as its spokesman.
In the revelation, which was at the 2022 Blueprint Newspapers Annual Public Lectures and Impact Awards, excerpt of which was reported by the People’s Gazette, Kukasheka said the then-Chief of Army Staff, Abdulrahman Dambazau resisted the pressure from military officers and politicians to remove Jonathan from office.
“When we visited 44 Reference Hospital, Kaduna, people were asking when is the announcement going to be made about taking over the government. I’m so happy General Akinyemi, the GOC 3 Armoured Division, is still alive. You can ask him.
“The international community showed concern to the extent that they had to meet with him, where he promised that he will not take over the government,” Kukasheka said.
He said some politicians were also involved in the defunct coup moves, which had reached an advanced stage that only a “phone call” from Mr Dambazau would have been enough to set things in motion.
“A simple phone call to him (General Akinyemi) to roll out the tanks and General Dambazau would have been head of state, but he resisted that temptation.
“I am saying this with every sense of responsibility because, at that time, the same group of politicians were the ones lobbying him to take over government unconstitutionally. We have the records, and when he started writing the memoir, with due respect to him, I told him that he had to mention the names of the individuals so that posterity will remember them for who they are,” Kukasheka added.
According to the Gazette, despite publicly asserting direct knowledge of the coup efforts, Kukasheka did not clarify whether or not Jonathan was briefed about it, or how the matter was handled. He was also silent on how the officers who prepared the purported coup and demanded a timeline of an announcement were treated, indicating Dambazau and the larger military leadership at the time might have shielded the officers from treason charges.