Francis Ede was to be executed on June 8, 1998, but luckily, that was the very day Gen. Sani Abacha died.
The Ebonyi State man was a staff of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO). Within the period before he was sentenced to death, he had been detained at various times in 32 detention camps for more than five years. The allegation against him was that he and others plotted to bomb the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) depot in Ejigbo, Lagos But he was innocent.
Gen. Abacha simply wanted to bulldoze members of the pro-democratic organisations and other dignitaries whom he viewed as obstacles towards his ambition.
Ede said:
"On 12th September, 1994, I and others were taken to the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) where we were put inside sacks for hours before we were forced to sign fabricated confessional statements. Thereafter, we were taken to the Presidential Task Force on Anti-Abacha led by ACP Zakari Biu at Alagbon Close in Ikoyi Lagos. At this juncture, we encountered the highest torture of our lives from the security agents.
"Some days later, they were on our necks for us to sign other forged confessional statements implicating other NADECO members. During our encounter, I was told by a certain DSP Emma Ogolo that the only condition for my release was to admit that Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu sent me to bomb NNPC, Ejigbo Depot, a request which I stoutly objected to.
"The government tactically conceived a plot to implicate and possibly kill us in the process. And for his security operatives to brainwash the public, they stage-managed series of bomb blasts across the country. So we were arrested on spurious allegations, claiming that we engaged in the said acts to destabilise the nation.
"Consequent upon the arbitrarily arrest over the false accusations…over 290 of the detainees were dressed in green robes, the clothes indicating that we were meant to be killed, on June 8 1998. But as God would have it, Gen. Abacha died mysteriously at the early hours of the same day that we were supposed to be executed. Before his demise, execution duty soldiers had been assembled at the Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison in preparation for the purpose but we cheated death by the death of he who wanted to put us to death. It was a narrow escape."
Source: This Is Bendel
