Ex-EFCC Boss to Release Memoir Tomorrow Titled ‘Farida Waziri: One Step Ahead’

“After 1976, my view about coup d’états was conservative. A coup, whether bloody or not, is a piece of a nasty conundrum and I’d rather ponder about it from a safe distance. But as Commissioner of Police B Operations (B/Ops), there was no way I could stand aloof from the current situation. I was appointed into the legal team that was to work with the Special Investigative Panel (SIP) on the trial of the suspected coup plotters. Retired Colonel Joseph Akaagerger, a former governor of Katsina State, led the legal team, while Major General Felix Mujakpero, a very nice gentleman, headed the SIP.

“The SIP was to

convene at Alexander Avenue in lkoyi. I decided to visit the location days before the start of proceedings. The intention was to familiarise myself with the environment in which I would no doubt be spending the next few working weeks or maybe months. Ikoyi was a quiet, beautiful suburb of Lagos with tree-lined avenues framing elegant colonial houses set on large generous grounds.

“I went around the house and covered the grounds, including the Boys Quarters- a colonial legacy, dwellings set away from the main house for domestic servants. What I saw at the Boys Quarters filled me with unease.

“A detachment of soldiers was busy digging up the floors. In one room, they had dug out the tiles and were putting in hooks all over the now exposed earthen floor. In another room, the floor had been excavated creating a pit that the soldiers now proceeded to fill with refuse from the dustbin, the smell was pungent and unbearable, is it where the suspect will stay, why make it unhealthy, I  asked them, but there was no response. Later, I realised only the junior suspects remained there. The panel commenced sitting, and work began in earnest. The legal team didn’t participate in the interrogations, but its members witnessed some of the proceedings through a one-way glass window.

“Not all the interrogations occurred in the open. Some took place in the reconstructed Boys Quarters. Others progressed outside the premises at obscured locations, and there was no doubt that the interrogators employed torture. The suspects often returned in bad shape, with swollen faces and bruised bodies. Some of them could hardly walk.

“Colonel Frank Omenka was the chief interrogator. Many things had been written about Omenka by those who crossed his path. I can only add a few annotations. Omenka was harsh in his methods. He loved his job. He enjoyed the misery he inflicted on suspects. I hold the conviction that he was a full- blown psychopath. He had a record player in his office. After a vigorous interrogation session during which he was in a good mood, he’d go to his office and dance to loud Makossa music. If you happened to come into his office at that time, he would invite you to dance with him. I always declined.

“Given the political climate at the time, we knew our task was a delicate one from the outset. An air of palpable paranoia hung over the proceedings, particularly, when a young officer who was initially on the investigative panel, Captain Musa, suddenly appeared one day in manacles as a suspect. We never found out how his connection. But the lesson was passed.

“We kept to ourselves for fear of being implicated. It was a delicate situation for many of us on the legal team because we were familiar with quite a few of the detainees. Their approach was telegraphed to us by the loud clanking of their manacles that gave us ample time to take cover and thus avoid any accidental meetings.

“Observing some of the detainees was somewhat disturbing, and for years, I was haunted by what I saw in their eyes. It was a look that defied verbal description, a look of naked despair. Even before interrogation, they had already resigned themselves to death.

“However, I broke my own rule. I couldn’t help but sympathise with a few of the suspects. For instance, Chris Anyanwu was a friend, a popular journalist, editor and publisher (and senator years later).The least I could do was to encourage her to eat and keep her spirit up. I urged her to write all she knew about the incident truthfully. Truth, I thought, always holds a glimmer of hope.

“I also knew Colonel Lawan Gwadabe. I would usually greet him whenever I saw him. He was a fine and outstanding officer, a brave man who showed no fear despite his ordeal at the hands of his interrogators. For some unfounded reasons, his interrogators had the conviction that he was involved in the coup plot, and they were determined to break him and extract a confession out of him by any means. Though held on the premises, he was frequently taken out to undisclosed locations for torture.

“On one occasion, he was taken out early in the morning. They brought him back the following morning a complete wreck, unable to walk.

“Upon orders from above, he was sent to undergo physiotherapy before his next interrogation could begin. On another occasion, they administered the so-called “truth pills” on him and the drug triggered a cardiac arrest that left Gwadabe unconscious and threw his interrogators into a panic. The process came to a forced stop as they made frantic efforts to resuscitate him. They could not bear the thought of him dying because their mandate was to extract a confession. On that score, Gwadabe defeated them. They could not break him. Their frustration became apparent at a meeting of the SIP.”

● An extract from the book, ‘Farida Waziri: One Step Ahead’ written by a former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Farida Waziri, detailing among other things, her role as a member of the legal team that worked with the Special Investigative Panel (SIP) on the 1995 coup. The book would be launched tomorrow (February 11).