The embattled former National Security Adviser, currently in detention, Colonel Sambo Dasuki was a financier and facilitator of the 1983 Coup which brought General Muhammadu Buhari to power as a military Head of State.
Alhaji Mustapha Jokolo who was the Aide de Camp (ADC) to General Buhari after the coup that toppled the government of President Shehu Shagari made the disclosure in an interview with the Sun newspaper.
The deposed Emir of Gwandu who was reacting to a new book authored by General Muhammadu Ilyasu Bashar who replaced him as the current Emir of Gwandu revealed that Sambo Dasuki, a major in the army then played active roles through adequate funding of the coup from different sources towards the success of the coup that made Muhammadu Buhari the Head of State.
Jokolo who took exception to some of the details contained in General Bashar’s book, described the funding of the coup that brought Buhari into power in 1983, thus: “Honestly speaking, that’s why sometimes my heart bleeds because what is happening to Sambo Dasuki now, I worry a lot.
“It is an irony. If I had not brought him (Dasuki) in this thing (1983 coup plot), it could not have happened with Buhari being Head of State. It was Sambo Dasuki who facilitated it not me. I only suggested it.
“He was the one who convinced these people. I swear to God, Almighty. He was the one. He did a lot, honestly speaking…So I connected them with Sambo Dasuki and wallahi Sambo…even when we were planning the coup that saw Buhari as Head of State, Sambo Dasuki was the one who was getting money for us from Aliyu Gusau and Chief of Army Staff votes to help the coup plot because not a single Kobo did we get from Buhari. Not only that, he used his father’s money to sponsor some Mallams to go to Saudi Arabia to help pray for the success of the coup.”
In a recently published book “An Encounter with the Spymaster” by Yushau Shuaib, Sambo disclosed how he and two other young army officers went to meet Buhari on the 1983 coup d’etat, Dasuki admitted that “he and two young military officers (Major Mustapha Jokolo and Major Lawal Gwadabe) travelled to Jos to brief Major General Buhari, who was then the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of 3rd Armoured Division on the furtherance of the planning of the 1983 coup which made Buhari the major beneficiary of the ouster of the elected President Shehu Shagari.”
Dasuki disclosed how Buhari expressed his bitterness about insinuations on his stewardship in one of the public institutions upon which Dasuki assured the then GOC “not to worry about such reckless and mischievous insinuations since we are taking over power from the politicians.”
When the author of the book asked Dasuki why he participated in the ouster of Buhari just less than two years afterward, Dasuki simply answered that “General Buhari should know whom he should blame.”
Dasuki said: “I always respect and dignify my seniors and those in positions of authority, whether in service or after. Though as a young officer, I was reluctant to be among those that arrested him. And I was not.
“I only met him afterward at Bonny Camp with Lawal Rafindadi. There is no way I could have maltreated him as being alleged in some quarters. I am glad most of the actors are still alive.”
Meanwhile, contrary to the popular belief that Sambo Dasuki, was in the team that arrested Muhammadu Buhari during the 1985 coup, retired Colonel Abdulmumini Aminu from Katsina State revealed the identities of the three majors.
Aminu said it was a three-man team which he led that arrested the then head of state (General Buhari) with the others being Lawan Gwadabe and John Madaki.
Aminu said: “I must confess that I led that operation. I went to Dodan Barracks that time in company of two other officers – then Major John Madaki and Lawan Gwadabe. Three of us went, but specifically I was the one that went upstairs to bring Buhari. With due respect, I have been reading in the papers and listening to radio, people saying that we manhandled him, we disrespected him. That was not true. I and General Buhari are the only two who knew what transpired upstairs and there was nothing like that.
“We gave him his absolute respect as a superior, because even before that time, we had absolute respect for him, because of whom and what he was. We respected him a lot till today and there is no animosity between us and he knew it was a military assignment that we were carrying out from our superior. He even told me at one time. So for us, it is just like the other way round of when he came to power during the anti-Shagari coup. I was among those who played a major role in getting him to power (in 1983).”
