“Good morning fellow Nigerians, this is Lt. Col Bukar Sukar Dimka of the Nigeria Army calling. I bring you good tidings. Murtala Muhammed’s hypocrisy has been detected. His government is now overthrown by the Young Revolutionaries. All the Nigeria military governors have no powers over the states they now govern. The state affairs will be run by the military brigade commanders until further notice. All commissioners are sacked except for the armed forces and police commissioners who will be deployed.
All senior officials should continue to be calm in their respective posts. No divisional commander will trouble orders to his formations until in addition word. Any try and foil this plan from any zone might be met with demise. You are warned, it is all around the 19 states. All acts of … (phrase unclear) discovered can be death. Everyone ought to be calm. Please live with the aid of your radios for in addition announcements. All borders, airports and seaports are closed till in addition observe. Curfew is imposed as from 6am to 6pm. Thank you. We are all together.”
These had been the phrases of Bukar Sukar Dimka of the Nigeria Army Physical Training Corps, representing those he called the Young Revolutionaries, as they attempted to take over the General Murtala Mohammed-led military regime. Although the attempted coup failed, Mohammed, his ADC, Lt. Akintunde Akinsehinwa, and driver were killed.
A volley of bullets had been sprayed on Muhammed’s authentic Mercedez Benz car near a petroleum station, opposite the Federal Secretariat, Ikoyi, Lagos. Dateline: Friday, February thirteen, 1976.
Following the failure of the coup, Dimka and his co-conspirators have been declared wanted by means of the military authorities. Intermittently, the radio gave data approximately the fugitives.
Friendship
March four, 1976 started out like a regular day in Amachi, Afikpo, Ebonyi State. (Afikpo became in Imo State then). However, before the solar went to mattress, things commenced to exchange in an great manner.
In the evening of that day, a white Renault car with registration variety ECC 6253 entered the premises of Ikenyi Friendship Hotel in Afikpo. The front variety plate became dangling.
The sole occupant changed into a nicely-built man in his mid 30s, 5 toes six-inch tall with one deep tribal mark on every cheek. He wore a conventional robe.
The younger guy approached the resort team of workers and requested to be shown round before checking in. He was taken to all the rooms in the resort, which was a bungalow at the time. Finally, the person selected a room in the back of the constructing. Interestingly, the room had a unique characteristic: It had no burglar evidence; other rooms had.
Subsequently, the visitor checked in as Mr C. Godwin, an legit of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Enugu.
A personnel of the hotel, Ogbonnaya Nwaogwu, who was approximately 20-years-old on the time, instructed the reporter: “After checking in, the man made a request. He asked for a lady to spend the night time with. So, a girl turned into delivered for him from a brothel around. But whilst he noticed the lady, he said he did now not want an ashawo (prostitute).
We questioned how he knew that the girl become an ashawo; in spite of everything ashawo is not written on all people’s face. When the woman got here out, she stated that he have been to their place (inn) earlier than and performed with the girls there. I think he ought to have additionally observed the girl with others there.
“So, when he rejected the primary female, we went to a neighbouring village, Ukpa, and taken every other female for him. He didn’t complain about the female and he close the door when the lady entered into his room. Her call become Beatrice Ugochi.
“Some folks who were right here did now not recognise Dimka in person. All we knew changed into that there has been a coup, but a few humans in Afikpo knew Dimka. That was the trouble.
“When he got here to Afikpo, a few humans identified him.
So, they reported to the police that they'd visible someone who gave the look of Dimka. You recognise, you cannot just cross there and say you have visible Dimka just like that.
“Not long after, protection men stormed the resort, pronouncing that they desired to recognise the those who have been accommodations within the motel. We told them that we were having only one guest and they asked if he become Dimka. We instructed them that the visitor become an agric officer from Enugu. They insisted on seeing the visitor.
“When the officers insisted on seeing our guest, Mr Godwin, we went and knocked on his door. When the lodger requested who became knocking, he turned into told that a few people desired to look him. The lodger said that he could come and notice the visitors quickly, explaining that he changed into having a shower. They waited for him for some time but he didn’t pop out. The officials surrounded the constructing and a few went and knocked on his door.
“After waiting without answer, the officers compelled the door open and determined Ugochi sitting at the bed. The men asked her approximately the man she was alleged to be with and she or he pointed to the bathroom.
Again, they knocked on the rest room door however there has been no reaction. They broke the rest room door however the lodger was nowhere to be determined. He had vanished.”
It turned into later located that the guest escaped thru the rest room window, which had no protector. The suspicion that the lodger, Mr C. Godwin and Dimka were the equal person have become extra profound. Then the officers began beating the woman.
The disappearance of the lodger threw the security agents into confusion and panic. According to a witness, “the security dealers started to sweat profusely. They painted pathetic pics as they searched all around the place, searching out the escapee lodger who slipped via their fingers, and abandoned his gateway vehicle loaded with cash. They didn’t realize how long he have been gone or the direction he took. In fact, all of them regarded stupid. Dimka had outsmarted them.”
The safety men unleashed their anger and frustration on Ugochi, beating and battering her like a thief. They took her and the lodge supervisor to the police station and later transferred them to Owerri.
Dimka’s physical capability was deployed while it mattered maximum. While the men pursuing Dimka were chasing shadows in Afikpo, he walked away thru the bush in the back of the lodge at the time. He walked within the bush during the night for numerous kilometers. The bubble, but, burst at Abaomege, near Abakaliki.
Dimka’s plan become to go into Cameroun via neighbouring Cross River State. Investigation found out that during the Ngeria/Biafra civil battle, Dimka had operated in Afikpo, so he became conversant with the location.
Victim of the flesh
Dimka gave himself away by frolicking with ladies of clean virtues at a nearby brothel earlier than checking into Ikenyi Friendship Hotel. While there, some humans had noticed him and stated to the neighborhood police. But before the security employees arrived, he had long past. They ultimately traced him to Ikenyi Friendship Hotel. Anyway, Dimka become just being himself. While attractive for information on his whereabouts, the police had cited that, “he drinks and he is fond of pub houses.”
Ikenyi Friendship Hotel turned into undergoing protection when Daily Sun visited ultimate week.
The Federal Government, on March 6, 1976, issued a announcement regarding Dimka’s arrest. The statement stated: “His arrest followed a massive manhunt operation set up by a blended group of the army and police in the area.
“The previous day, Lt. Col. Dimka had checked right into a local motel in Afikpo underneath the call of Mr C. Godwin of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Enugu. Later, on his request, the resort manager secured for him a girl, Miss Beatrice (Ugochi) Agboti, with whom to spend the night.
“A few hours later, the local police security was alerted and that they closed up on him. At about 10.30pm, he bolted away through the toilet of his motel room into a close-by thick bush, leaving behind his automobile with a dandling registration range ECC 6253.
“The non-stop joint manhunt operation via the navy and police ended in his next arrest near Abakaliki.”
And the man died
Dimka become attempted and convicted by means of a navy tribunal. On Saturday, May 15, 1976, he and six others, along with the previous governor of Benue Plateau State, Joseph D. Gomwalk, have been completed by using firing squad.
Thirty- others had in advance been finished on March 11, 1976, for his or her alleged roles in the occasions of February thirteen. They included the federal commissioner for defence, Maj. Gen. Illiya Bisalla, who had attended the burial of the slain Head of State in Kano. He had maintained his innocence at the same time as he become being tied to the stake, pronouncing: “I am going to heaven. I want no prayer any longer.”
After Dimka’s execution, Obasanjo made a nationwide broadcast, pronouncing: “We have now significantly disposed off the principal issues springing up from the coup try".
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