Nigeria’s former President, Ibrahim Babangida has finally spoken on the death of renowned journalist, Dele Giwa and 159 Nigerian soldiers.
Babangida said that the plane crash in which more than 159 officers lost their lives in Ejirin swamp in Lagos in 1992 was an unfortunate accident.
“It was investigated. It was reported. But you guys had a mindset. Certain people had a mindset; nobody was interested in the report. But it was investigated. What happened in sum total was that the aircraft should not have been flying. There are mandatory stages, number of hours and maintenance. All those things that are mandatory were not there”, Babangida said.
When he was asked on what happened to the people who authorised the plane to fly on that ill-fated day, Babangida said, “They ought to have been punished. I know that blame was apportioned. I wouldn’t know about the punishment. We investigated; we even apportioned blame but no penalty.”
On why that was so, he simply remarked, “That is the Nigerian factor.”
On Giwa’s murder, Babangida said,“Would you ever think somebody could sit and ask a soldier or anybody, go and kill that kill that man?”
“We were friends. Very soon, somebody is going to accuse me of saying he is my friend. I knew him very closely. I have correspondence between him and me. But that is not enough for you to believe that we were friends. What is enough is that I took a bomb and killed him.”
