State Pardon: I have no regret – Diya thanks Jonathan

By Ameh Comrade Godwin 

A former Military Governor of Ogun state, retired Lt. General Oladipo Diya, on Friday expressed gratitude to President Goodluck Jonathan and the Council of State for recently granting him state pardon, saying that he has forgive Abacha.
He told newsmen at his Ikeja residence on Friday that God should forgive the one who suffered him unjustly.
The former Governor was accompanied by his son, Barrister Sinmi Diya, Senators Femi Okorounmu and Tony Adefuye.
Diya, while thanking all Nigerians who pleaded on their behalf during their trial period said that as a good Christian, he had forgiven those who neglected him, saying that he has been praying for them.
He said, “But for the grace of God, we would have been executed,” he said, but refused to narrate his experience, promising that the subject would be presented in detail in a biographical work in progress.
“Like my friend, Babatope, would say: I would have regretted if I had not served in that government,” he remarked.
The former Chief of General Staff under the regime of late Gen. Sani Abacha, was sentenced to death, along with other Military Officers and civilians in 1995 on treachery charges for what is now being referred to as a ‘phantom coup.’

Diya insisted that the Abacha regime had one of the best cabinet ever assembled in Nigeria, parading such men as current National Chairman of the PDP, Bamanga Tukur, former Lagos Governor, Lateef Jakande, and, Ebenezer Babatope.
He expressed displeasure over the report of the Oputa Panel set up by the Olusegun Obsanjo regime which has not been implemented yet.
He said: “Finally, I want to thank the President, His Excellency once again for his kind gesture and to appeal to him to publish and implement the Oputa Panel report.
“This was a panel set up by the Federal Government of Nigeria with state funds and a report was submitted on it; a lot of findings and recomendatiopns were made most especially on the phantom coups of 1995 and 1997.
“A similar panel called the Truth and Reconciliation committee was set up in the Republic of South Africa, and the implementation of that committee report in South Africa has contributed tremendously.
He recalled that he went through ‘hell’ over the charges levelled against him and many others, some of whom he never knew, but were forced to suffer because of the regime’s determination to eliminate him.
DailyPost