A
retired Brigadier-General of the Nigerian army has spoken out about the
Nigerian president who initiated the use of Ghana-Must-Go bags to steal
money.
Olusegun Obasanjo
Elder statesman, Brigadier-General Idada Ikponmwen (retd) has
alleged that former President, Olusegun Obasanjo introduced the system
of using Ghana-Must-Go bags to steal money in Nigeria.
Ikponmwen, a former Provost Marshal of the Nigeria Army and the
Defence Counsel during the coup trial under the Abacha administration
described the regime of Obasanjo as the worst that happened to Nigeria
as a country.
Speaking with Vanguard, the retired senior military officer noted that PDP government under Obasanjo introduced corruption.
He said, “The Obasanjo government manipulated the election at
the convention against those who aligned with Awoniyi. The PDP
government under Obasanjo introduced corruption. It was Obasanjo’s
regime that started to use Ghana must go bags to bribe legislators so
that things will go the way it wanted.
“When they brought Obasanjo to be President, remember he had
been convicted, he had been sentenced to death by firing squad by a
military tribunal that tried him under Abacha regime.
“I was the lead counsel for defence in that trial, and we
fought to establish that there was no attempted coup. In fact, Obasanjo
came to meet me pleading that I should see how to save his life, and I
told him that although, he was not the one that invited me to the court,
all of them charged for that coup had the same case; so the line of
defence was the same.
“Therefore if I defended one, I would have defended all of
them. My take was that there was no coup, no meeting, no justification
for convicting any body as General Aziza, the Chairman of the tribunal
and of blessed memory, did. In the end, the military decided to bring
Obasanjo for President in order to appease Yoruba people for the wrong
done to them with the nullification of Abiola’s June 12, 1993 election.
“The PDP government under Obasanjo introduced corruption. It
was Obasanjo’s regime that started to use Ghana must go bags to bribe
legislators so that things will go the way it wanted.”