By Luka Binniyat
James Mangai, my egregious childhood buddy, now aging with a widening bald head, and an amusing grey mustache, just left my house.
Friendship and the Barracks
It’s been a while since we met, though we both live in Kaduna, with our wives and kids, some of them now grown-ups.
Mangai has been my friend dating back to 1970 when our parents brought us to stay with them at 130 Battalion, Nigerian Army, Ozala, East Central State, (now in Enugu state). The Nigeria civil war had just ended, and our dads, yearning for family companionship, felt we should join them from our homes in Zaria, as the first batch of family reunion. Mangai is of the Challah (Ron) tribal group or Bokkos at that time in Benue-Plateau State and I am from the Atyap ethnic group of ‘Southern Zaria’ North Central State. It is now Southern Kaduna in Kaduna State.
Our parents had met during recruitment at the Nigeria Army Depot in Zaria in 1967 and just hit it off. They fought side-by-side for the entire 3 years that the ‘Ojukwu war’ stretched as infantry soldiers and came out without a scratch.
From Ozala, where we started primary school (St. Paul Primary School Ozala) in 1974, our parents were transferred to Keffi and we both enrolled at the Army Children School, Keffi in the same 1974 up to 1977. After that, we found ourselves moved to three other Barracks around the country during our secondary and University days. After a long time of separation work reunited us in Kaduna in 2011.
After we had lunch, we left the parlor to sit outside for fresh air so we could enjoy our privacy
The Dimka Coup
We reminisced over many issues of those days.
Then, Mangai recalled a grim event that has come to be known as the ‘Dimka coup’ of 1976.
It took place on 13th February, 1976 and we were in primary 3 at Army Children School, Keffi. We recalled with angst the tension and anxiety that gripped 130 Battalion, Keffi. We could hear the voice of one Lt. Col. Buka Suka Dimka spoke over Radio Nigeria about overthrowing Gen Murtala Mohammed that morning and forming a new government. And it wasn’t quite long after Murtala had also expelled Gen. Yakubu Gowon from power. The barracks was thrown into confusion. Our parents got dressed into war gears and gathered at the parade ground for further instructions. There was also confusion and fear as it was said that Christian soldiers had killed Gen Mohammed, a Muslim.
I recalled that Mangai and our friends from Benue-Plateau were excited about the coup, because Dimka was from Pankshim, now in plateau State. But our friends from parts of the Muslim North Central, North Western and Kano states of those days were deeply hurt. Even as kids, we were careful how we discussed the coup ever after.
Then the coup failed.
We remembered that shortly after the coup failed, Olusegun Obasanjo was made Nigeria Head of state.
We heard that Dimka was on the run, but that some army officers had been arrested.
Then it was all over the news that Dimka was arrested somewhere in Igbo land.
We also heard that Maj. Gen Bissallah, also from Jos area, was also arrested.
They were later executed by a firing squad.
Within days, pictures of two soldiers were .posted all over our Barracks. They were also in the newspapers that we were sent to go buy for our teachers and soldiers who could read.
MOST WANTED! was the banner caption.
They were Capt Dauda Usman and Sergeant Clement Yildar.
Now, Yildar was from Benue-Plateau and Usman from ‘Southern Zaria’.
After the execution of the arrested coup plotters, the hunt for the two alleged accomplices continued.
Mythical figures
They later became more like legends because of the myths woven around them.
“Do you remember that it was said that Capt. Dauda was cornered in a House in Kafanchan, but that he turned into a bird and flew through the window,” I asked Mangai to express the invincibility of the ‘Southern Zaria’ man.
“Do you also remember that it was said that the army rushed to Kanke (home town of Sgt. Yildar in Kanke LGA of plateau State) to arrest Yildar who was farming for his father and that he just turned into a small flowing stream and they couldn’t fetch him,” he said of his own person the way myths were woven around them. Of Course we laughed over those tales.
Such monumental happenings don’t fade from memory till death.
Need to revisit Dauda and Yilda’s case
But, then, It’s 48 years now and no one has come up to say anything about the whereabouts of these two fugitive soldiers.
“Strangely, it’s like they don’t have families or children. I can’t remember anyone saying he’s related to them all these years,” Mangai said.
And that also beats my thinking.
These figures still hold remarkable childhood impressions on our psyche 48 years after in a profound manner. And it may also be so for members of our generation and above.
“If Ojukwu who carried out a bloody secession war against the Nigeria State could get a state pardon and Boko Haram terrorists who killed and maimed could be forgiven and rehabilitated, I don’t see why an official pardon cannot be granted to these two soldiers if they are still alive,” Mangai posited.
“Niger Delta militants have been granted amnesty and even apologists for Fulani bandits are asking for their amnesty and even for their ‘compensation despite their heinous crime against humanity,” I added.
“Could it be that certain ethnic nationalities cannot also ask for such favours even for alleged political crimes committed nearly half a century?” I queried.
“If they are alive, they would be in their late eighties or early nineties. I also do believe that they deserve a state pardon,” Mangai said.
“You are the Chairman of the Middle Belt Forum, Kaduna state Chapter,” he pointed out, “these two men need your voice as your members, since their families won’t appear to make a case for them,” he said.
“You must begin to find out what has happened to them and how they can enjoy state pardon alive or postmortem,” he challenged me.
And I have taken that challenge.
They have been on the run for 48 years.
I believe that it’s high time Nigeria revisited their case, especially as no one has heard their own side of the story in that tragic event which redirected the course of this nation.
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Luka Binniyat is an award winning Journalist, freelance writer and is the Chairman, Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Kaduna State Chapter.
