NATION

5 facts about Lt. Gen. Oladipupo Diya you need to know

I. Born Donaldson Oladipo Diya on 3 April 1944, he was educated at the Yaba Methodist School, Lagos, and later in Odogbolu, Ogun state.

II. Diya joined the Nigerian Army through direct entry to the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, and was commissioned A Second Lieutenant in March, 1967. He fought in the Nigerian civil war.

III. Diya attended professional career courses in elite US Army School of Infantry; Command and Staff Collage, Jaji; and, NIPSS, Kuru. He subsequently read Law at the Ahmadu Bello University; Nigerian Law School, and, eventually became solicitor and advocate of the Supreme Court.

IV. Diya rose to become the chief of general staff to the late Nigerian maximum ruler, General Sani Abacha but would later be accused and tried for coup plotting against the regime in 1997, along with other senior and junior officers.

V. Diya received a death sentence by the tribunal who tried the alleged coupists. While awaiting his death, Abacha died and the lot fell on his successor, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar to release Diya and other coupists and transition Nigeria to civilian rule.

 

 

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