According to Ulasi, when they were about departing the residence of Shagari, the ex-president called them aside and said: “Do you know why I was removed? They didn’t want an Igbo man to become president.”
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
A former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra State, Dan Ulasi, has said that President Shehu Shagari was removed in office to stop an Igbo man becoming president after him.
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Ulasi made the disclosure during an interview in the AIT’s breakfast programme, Kakaaki
Shagari was removed in a military coup on December 31, 1983 and replaced by Major General Muhammadu Buhari.
The coup plotters kept Shagari in a house arrest but detained his vice president, Alex Ekueme in Kirikiri prison.
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Ulasi, while discussing the possibility of an Igbo man emerging president in 2023, said the gang up against the Igbo have been age long.
He recalled that shortly after Shagari was removed in office, the ex-president’s son was involved in an accident that claimed the life of the lad.
Ulasi said he accompanied a prominent politician in the South East, Chuba Okadigbo, to pay Shagari a condolence visit in Sokoto.
According to Ulasi, when they were about departing the residence of Shagari, the ex-president called them aside and said: “Do you know why I was removed? They didn’t want an Igbo man to become president.”
Ulasi said the 1983 coup was conceived by Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha, both men major generals who wanted to stop the Igbo from replacing Shagari.
At the time, Shagari was in his second and last term in office, and might have supported Ekwueme, his Vice President to the presidency.
Ulasi said the coup plotters, because they lacked the credibility to convince Nigerians on why they removed Shagari, brought Major General Muhammadu Buhari from his posting in Jos to give the government a semblance of credibility.
Ulasi, in responding to the question about the Igbo agitation for the 2023 president, said he would not support zoning in the PDP, but an open contest, especially because many of the aspirants have already purchased their nomination forms.