Wife of former Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Maj-Gen. Mamman Vatsa, Sufiya, has urged President Olusegun Obasanjo to prosecute former military President Ibrahim Babangida for alleged murder of her husband.
Sufiya, in a letter to the President dated June 15, 2006, and made available to THISDAY yesterday, said her husband, who was executed 20 years ago for his complicity in a coup plot, was convicted despite the fact that there was “no iota of evidence” linking him to the said offence.
Her case against the former military president who was at the helm of affairs when the incident occurred was that despite manifest lack of evidence to implicate her husband, Babangida allowed the execution to take place.
Vatsa, along with a score of other officers, were arrested in December 1985 for plotting to overthrow the four-month-old regime of Babangida.
Despite his claim of innocence, he and nine other officers who were classified as prime movers were, however, convicted and sentenced to death the following year.
Although there was a groundswell of public plea for mercy, particularly because of Vatsa who had become an accomplished poet, the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) approved the conviction and sentence.
“In the military, the penalty for treason is death,” the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Maj-Gen Domkat Bali, told the nation a few hours after the officers were secretly executed in Lagos.
But Sufiya contended in her letter to the President that the incident might have been premeditated murder. Her reasons: “Although there was no iota of evidence linking my husband with the phantom coup, he was convicted and sentenced to death by the Special Military Tribunal which purportedly tried him and other ‘coup suspects.”
Secondly, she added: “My husband’s appeal to the Armed Forces Ruling Council against his illegal conviction was yet to be considered when the Head of State, Gen. Babangida had him secretly executed along with the other ‘coup convicts.”
Thirdly, she said: “The enacted Treason and Other Related Offences (Special Military Tribunal) Decree No 1 of 1986 under which my husband was purportedly tried was signed by Gen. Babangida on January 6, 1986- several days after his arrest!”
Sufiya said that if the President had any doubt about her claims, then a recent interview Gen. Bali granted TheNews, a Lagos based news magazine, should clear his doubt.
She quoted the former defence chief to have said in the interview published in the May 22, 2006 edition: “My regret is that up till now, I am not sure whether Vatsa ought to have been killed because whatever evidence they amassed against him was weak. My only regret is that I cannot say ‘don’t do it.’ I am not sure whether we were right to have killed.”
Vatsa’s widow said in the light of Bali’s disclosure it had become imperative for her to seek redress. “I hereby request your Excellency to prosecute General Ibrahim Babangida for reckless murder of my husband, General Mamman Vatsa.”
She ended her two-page letter with a catch line: “Having regard to Your Excellency’s terrible experience under the Late General Sani Abacha, I have no doubt that you will ensure that justice is done without any delay.”
Speaking to THISDAY last night, Sufiya said she wrote the petition in order to clear the name of her husband so that he could be given a decent burial.
“I am seeking justice, not vengeance,” she said firmly, adding that the President had agreed to grant her audience very soon.
