Eniola Akinkuotu, Abuja
A former Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party’s Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih,
says the military administration of President Muhammadu Buhari kept him
in jail for 18 months between March 1984 and August 1985 because he was
a rich man.
Anenih said this in his biography titled, ‘My Life and Nigerian Politics’ which was launched in Abuja on Saturday.
He said when Buhari came into power
through a military coup in December 1983, he went about arresting
politicians arbitrarily and he was one of those picked up because he was
the Chairman of the defunct National Party of Nigeria in old Bendel
State.
Anenih said, “The military regime of
General Buhari and Tunde Idiagbon threw me into detention for 18 months
on the basis of an anonymous petition that as a prominent and wealthy
politician and leader of the NPN in Bendel State, the military
administrator would not find his footing unless I was removed from the
scene.
“I was sent to Kirikiri Prisons where I spent three months before I was transferred to Ikoyi Prisons.”
The retired police officer maintained that he did nothing wrong to warrant such treatment.
He said, “I must emphasise it again and
again that I did nothing wrong to anyone, the government or the state to
merit a detention. My crime was that I was a wealthy, influential and
highly respected politician.”
Anenih, who later served as the minister
of works and housing under former President Olusegun Obasanjo from 1999
to 2002, said while in detention, he met other prominent politicians
like former Governor Lateef Jakande of Lagos State, former Governor
Olabisi Onabanjo of Ogun State; ex-Governor Bola Ige of old Oyo State;
former Vice-President Alex Ekwueme, ex-Governor Ambrose Alli of old
Bendel State, Chief Solomon Lar and many others.
The ex-minister said their cells were bugged by security agents who monitored their conversation.
The PDP chieftain said the worst part of
the detention was that some governors who had sentenced some criminals
to death were locked up in the same cells.
Anenih said, “We were transferred to
Ikoyi Prisons because of the riot that took place while we were there.
The condemned prisoners whose death warrants had earlier been signed by
Alhaji Lateef Jakande when he was governor of Lagos State, broke loose
on sighting him as one of the detainees.
“They broke out of their cells and
headed towards the building where Jakande and the rest of us detainees
were kept. As the prisoners were attempting to force the iron door open,
mobile police were called in to quell the riot.”
The ex-minister, who gave an insight
into the living condition of the politicians in detention, described the
experience as hellish.
He added, “Where we were staying, the
bucket latrines or toilets had opening to the rooms. These buckets were
emptied maybe once a week from behind, and if for any reason the buckets
were not emptied once a week as the rule, you lived with the stench.
“At night, cockroaches, rats and lizards
passed through these holes housing the bucket latrines into our cells
after crawling on the buckets to disturb us. So, you could really not
sleep for one hour without getting cockroaches perch on you.”
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