Sanwo-Olu on condolence visit to Diya’s family months after death
Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos, on Saturday visited the family of the late Chief of general staff of the defunct Provisional Ruling Council, Gen. Oladipupo Diya.
The visit comes over three months after Diya passed on.
“I paid a condolence visit to the family of late Lt. General Donaldson Oladipo Oyeyinka Diya, former Chief of General Staff and former Chief of Defence Staff, Federal Republic of Nigeria. May his soul rest in peace. Amen, ” Sanwo-Olu said in a sympathy message published on social media.
In March, Governor Sanwo-Olu had penned a condolence message in which he described Diya’s death as “a colossal loss to the country”.
The governor added, “He made lots of positive impact and contribution during his lifetime to the growth and development of Nigeria, especially in the Nigeria Army— a statement that seems more political than the actual reflection of Diya in his lifetime.
TheCornet reported that Diya died in March 2023. He was the second-in-command to then Nigerian maximum head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha, who ruled the country with an iron fist.
Diya would later plummet from grace to the prison; a military tribunal sentenced him to death by firing squad for his involvement in a coup. Following Abacha’s mysterious death in 1998, Diya and other political prisoners were released.
