Re-visit Oputa Panel And Grant Us Reliefs Recommended In Our Favour, Col. Oloruntoba (rtd) Appeal To Buhari

A retired military officer and one of the officers arrested, jailed and tortured by the regime of late General Sani Abacha for te 1995 phantom coup, Col.Olusegun Oloruntoba has called on President Mohammadu Buhari to flip through the files of the recommendation of the Oputa panel and grant all the reliefs recommended in their favour.

Colonel Oloruntoba retired made the passionate appeal in an interview he granted the Punch on Sunday.

Oloruntoba who was disappointed with former President, Olusegun Obasanjo who himself was one of those arrested, jailed and sentenced to dwath, for making empty promises and for eight years as president did not do anything.

His words; “Our President and Commander-in-Chief, Muhammadu Buhari, is known to be highly principled and honest. He is not somebody who will condone injustice against anybody, from the little we know of him when we were in the army, though he was far ahead of us.

“We are urging him I am personally convinced that if he looks through the document, he would cause justice to be carried out on our behalf because he too was a victim of injustice – after his dethronement as a military head of state, he was detained for about five years. I appeal to him to please ask for that document.

Speaking on former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Oloruntoba lamented that “it was unbelievable and beyond any reason whatsoever that the same Gen. Obasanjo that was detained along with us would become president and commander-in-chief and all the reliefs recommended by the Oputa Panel, he did not implement them.

“It was very sad and unfortunate. I am very sorry to say: if it were Gen. Yar’Adua that found himself to be president after our release, we won’t be begging anybody for compensations. Yar’Adua would have implemented everything (Oputa panel recommendations) in our favour.

“I shared the same ‘Death Cell’ with Gen. Yar’Adua. He told us, ‘Gentlemen, be assured that nobody can kill you but be ready to face torture for some time. No matter how long it takes, those of you who want to go back to the Army will be allowed to do so. And if anyone of you does not want to go back to the army, we’ll find better jobs for you.’

“Gen. Obasanjo didn’t need any panel to compensate us adequately. He knew what we went through but for reasons best known to him (he never did that) for eight years that he was in power.

“There was a particular year that he invited us all for a dinner – that should be February 2006. He assured us that the government would take good care of us, urging us to be patient. He even promised that July 14, which happened to be the day we were all sentenced to death, the government would invite all of us and our family members for a state dinner and that after the dinner, the Federal Government would then unveil its plans for us.

“Well, for the dinner (and the plans), maybe that will happen tomorrow, I don’t know – nothing happened. It is unfortunate. I know though that if God says we’ll be duly compensated, no human can stop it”, he said.