“The entire coup allegation was a frame up to kill the military officers”- Vatsa
Thirty eight years after he was killed following an alleged coup, the family of late General Mamman Jiya Vatsa has called on the federal Government to revisit, investigate the trial and eventual killing of their son.
It should be recalled that the late former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) during the General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida led administration was executed alongside nine other military officers in 1986 after they were accused of plotting a coup to overthrow the military administration of his kinsman and bosom friend, General Babangida.
The call is coming barely 24 hours after a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja ordered that the case of the brutal murder of Dele Giwa revisited.
While speaking to Journalists in Minna on Saturday, younger brother and Spokesperson for the late General Vatsa family, Hon. Jonathan Tsado Vatsa said “the entire coup allegation was a frame up to kill the military officers”.
Vatsa, a Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Niger state and former Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism appealed to the Federal Government to order the re-investigation into the coup allegation against General Vatsa and nine other military officers.
Recall that, a Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday ordered the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF) to resume the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the 1986 murder of the renowned investigative journalist and founder of Newswatch Magazine, Dele Giwa who was brutally murdered in his Lagos home on October 19, 1986, through a letter bomb during the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida.
According to him, “now that the court in Abuja has ordered the federal government to investigate the brutal murder of Dele Giwa, the case of General Vatsa and nine other military officers should also be revisited.
“The appeal had become necessary because the whole world must know the truth behind the killing of late General Vatsa.
“We believe that our brother, uncle, father and grandfather is innocent of the coup allegation, it was a frame up.”
He further appealed that, “after the re-trial and he is found innocent, which we believe, there is the need for us to give him a proper and befitting burial, even though we know that he cannot come back to life but let the whole world know the truth about his killing.
“What we are appealing is for the Federal Government to order the investigation into his killing and the nine other officers same way the Federal High Court has ordered for the investigation of murdered veteran Journalist, Dele Giwa”.
Furthermore, Vatsa said, “coincidentally, all these killings happened in 1986 under one administration. So, if justice must be done to one, it should be done to all. The 1986 coup was a complete frame up against the late General Vatsa just to eliminate him.
“We have not seen where a soldier who does not command any battalion as at the time he was framed up could plot or lead a coup, that is why we want the trial and the execution investigated.
“His death still remain very fresh not only in the minds of the immediate family but the entire Gulu Vatsa community because he was the light of the people. His killing created a serious vacuum in the community”.
