DELE GIWA: KAYODE SOYINKA REPLIES CHRIS OMEBEN
LONDON. 28 OCTOBER 2015.
Chris Omeben, who was a Deputy
Inspector-General of Police, when the letter bomb blast occurred on October 19,
1986, is a complete disgrace to the Nigeria Police Force.
He claimed to be an investigator
of the bomb blast. Instead of protecting me, the survivor, who escaped death by
a whisker, and by the very special grace of God, he is sadly and disgracefully
trying to rewrite the script to make me, as he said, his “principal suspect”.
His “principal suspect” should
be Halilu Akilu, who called Dele’s house about three times consecutively
Saturday before the Sunday bombing and spoke to Funmilayo, Dele’s wife, to ask
for description of and direction to Dele’s house in Ikeja.
On the Sunday of the bomb blast
Dele had spoken to Akilu from his upstairs bedroom before coming down to have
breakfast with me to tell him that he heard he had called him on Saturday and
asked why. The letter bomb was delivered to the house within 45 minutes after
that early morning telephone discussion between Dele and Akilu. So who should
be Omeben’s “principal suspect” then? Should it be me who was bombed with Dele?
Or Akilu?
Omeben, said, and I quote:
“Soyinka knew what was coming and he left the room to hide behind the wall.”
What a blatant lie? This man, who I understand is now a pastor, has no fear of
God in him at all, making such bold erroneous statement like that on an issue
of such sensitivity and accusing me, an innocent man – a victim and survivor of
the bomb blast. He should ask God for forgiveness! In this interview he granted
the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) to coincide with this year’s anniversary of
the bomb blast, it is “behind the wall” that Omeben said I hid myself. In his
interview with The Sun Newspaper in 2012 he said I ran to the toilet before the
bomb exploded. You can see the inconsistency in his wild allegations.
I am very disappointed and
shocked that the Nigerian media, who knew and should still know the facts of
what happened on that day gave Omeben powerful platform in mainstream media
outlets in Nigerian to voice out this falsehood – and without calling me (a
member of the Nigerian media family) to at least hear my own story. Only The
Nation newspaper did, and I doff my hat for them and their professionalism. I
am so disappointed particularly with the News Agency of Nigeria, the original
vehicle of Omeben’s allegations, that it allowed itself – such an important
national institution – to be used by Omeben to peddle such falsehood. As a
veteran journalist myself, I am ashamed of NAN and those other newspapers who
published that story without doing the professional thing of calling me to
cross check the veracity of Omeben’s claims and allegations.
So let me let Omeben know again
– if he does not know already, and so that he does not keep repeating these
erroneous allegations again when the anniversary comes up again next year, that
Dele and I were the only two people in the study when Dele’s son Billy delivered
the letter bomb to his father. It is very important here to remember that some
unidentified people, who gave it to the security man at the gate, delivered the
parcel bomb to Dele’s house. The security man, while coming inside the compound
with the parcel saw Billy (Dele’s son) on the way and gave it to him. When
Billy came to the study and delivered the parcel to his father, Dele looked at
it and handed it over to me. I looked at it and was able to vividly see the
inscription on the padded envelop and handed it back to him. He received it
back from me, moved his recycling chair back slightly to face the window on his
left, he held the envelope with both hands, and tried to tear it through the top
left-hand corner. He had not really opened it up, if he did it was only very
slightly. And boom!! The bomb exploded! A big ball of fire occurred. It was a
very powerful bomb explosion! The side of the envelope facing the iron-barred
window blew up that window. The side facing Dele exploded on his chest and
stomach. And the force that came out from the bottom of the envelope blew up
his upper legs and badly affected lower part of his body. He did not die
immediately. He died in the hospital.
Now, you see the vivid
description I have just given you – 29 years after the gory incident. If I ran
into the toilet or hid myself behind the wall before the bomb exploded like our
Mr Omeben will like the world, and particularly Nigerians, to believe, and as
he is trying hard, very hard, to label me as the suspect, how would I have been
able to know all this, and give this graphic description. That partly was what
the Oputa Panel missed when it investigated this matter because they did not
see it necessary at that time to invite me to give evidence and I was not
invited.
So, Mr Omeben should get it now
that I did not – and I repeat I did not - run away to toilet or hid behind a
wall. I sat on my own chair right in front of Dele. Only the strong mahogany
L-shaped desk on which we were eating our breakfast divided us. So I was literarily
inches away from him. The huge desk must have mobbed the force of the blast
that would have done the damage on me up. But the force was so powerful and so
powerful enough to still lift me off my chair. The chair itself collapsed. I
was thrown on the floor by the exit door. I was momentarily unconscious. But
regained consciousness, flung my spectacles off my face, and staggered out of
the room. Yes, I received no cut on my body, but my nightgown was spattered
with blood – Dele’s blood – and I had burns on my forehead. And I smelt of
burns.
I thank God for spearing my
life. I could have been killed on that day. My survival was a Biblical Miracle.
I told you that I held the letter bomb myself! What of if I was the one that
opened it? And I could easily have opened it myself. But I gave it back to
Dele. That’s why I believe my survival was the work of God. My own time was not
up yet.
What other allegation did Omeben
level against me? He said, “Up till today Soyinka never appeared before the
police.” Again, how can he be that ignorant? This is a blatant lie. And as a
senior police officer, especially one who claims to be investigating this
important incident, he should have known that I gave statements not once but twice
to the same Nigerian Police he represents before I eventually left Nigeria. The
first one was at the hospital where I was admitted – Dele’s body was next door
to me. That interrogation by a senior police officer whose name I cannot recall
took place on the spot when the incident was still fresh. It was inside the
hospital. Dele Olojede was beside me – he is alive, go and ask him. Dele
Olojede will recall that as questions were asked I could not hear anything. My
both ears were solidly blocked. That was a serious effect of the blast. Then it
was confirmed there at the hospital by the ear specialists that my ears were perforated.
And this was also confirmed when I got back to the UK after the incident. For
about five years after the bomb blast I had to endure continuous noise,
humming, nonstop in my both ears. It was very irritating, but there was nothing
I could do about it until it improved over the years and stopped. And even up
till today, 29 years after, I still carry the effect of the bomb blast in my
ears because I can hear better on the right ear while my left ear, which was
nearer to the blast is still weak. But who am I to complain about not hearing
well, when it could have been worse and I could have lost everything
completely, including my life.
The second statement I made when
the Police requested to see me again. It was made at the premises of Newswatch
in Oregun Road in Lagos in the presence of the eminent lawyer Chief Gani
Fawehinmi. I don’t know why Omeben did not know about this and he is accusing
me wrongly. The statement I made, and the ones made by Funmilayo (Dele’s wife)
and Billy, I believe, is now in public domain. Chief Gani Fawehinmi must have
published them in the series of books he published on this subject before he
died. So I don’t understand why Omeben should tell Nigerians such a blatant lies.
That is wickedness. He does not fear God at all. Thank God I am alive and I can
respond to him. Can you imagine if I had died with Dele, Omeben and cohorts
would have succeeded in putting cotton wool on the faces of Nigerians and sold
a different story completely to them to exonerate those who did it. He said
again “I have enough evidence to quiz Soyinka now”. Well, Nigerians should help
me beg Omeben, if he truly has those “enough evidence” he should do us a big
favour in Nigeria by releasing them to the public so that Nigerians can truly
know who bombed us, Dele and I, on that day.
Again, Omeben said: “They
started to insinuate that the assassination was masterminded by Babangida,
Akilu etc. They said that Akilu ought to have been investigated.” Who else
could have had the expertise to assemble a letter bomb in 1986 Nigeria if not the
military? He did not want to investigate Akilu who was calling Dele’s house
frantically on Saturday and who was the last person Dele spoke to on telephone
on that Sunday and the bomb was delivered into the house minutes after. He
doesn’t want to investigate Akilu but it is convenient to want to investigate
Soyinka the victim and survivor of the bomb blast. Oh, what an investigator?
Lastly, I did not run away from
Nigeria as he also claimed. I was in Nigeria throughout the controversies. My
family was in the UK when the bomb occurred. A Good Samaritan went to our home
in London and handed them airline tickets to come immediately to Nigeria and
join me. We were all in Nigeria throughout. My wife attended Dele’s burial with
me at his village near Auchi in Edo State. My pictures with my wife beside me
were spread on the pages on national newspapers the following morning after the
burial – with my ears still covered with cotton wool. Mr Omeben his pretending
he did not know all this and still saying “Soyinka ran away to London”. I
eventually left Nigeria shortly after Dele’s burial, which, if my memory
services me right, was about two months after the bombing. And we did not have
to leave or “ran away” through the famous “Nadeco Route”. My wife and I, with
our two little children, left through the Murtala Mohammed airport in Lagos and
no one stopped us from taking the British Caledonian flight to London. Members
of our family, Newswatch editors and friends escorted us to the airport. It was
in full glare of the public.
I hope with these comments I
have made Nigerian people will come to know Chris Omeben for who he truly is –
certainly not an investigator as he claims to be but an errand boy and mischief
maker, representing the interests of his “Ogas at the Top”, the real culprits
who sent us the letter bomb. He knows who the real suspects are. Nigerians know
who the real suspects are. Certainly not me – Soyinka! He should beam his
searchlight on Akilu and Togun and Babangida.
May Dele Giwa’s soul continue to
rest in peace.
By Kayode Soyinka. London.
October 28, 2015.
END.
Kayode Soyinka
Publisher, THE AFRICA TODAY GROUP
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