Temitope
Temitope Akinola
About two years before his death, the Late Police Commissioner, Ibrahim Ahmed Babankowa revealed how he discovered the decaying bodies of the assassinated Prime Minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, his chief of Finance, Okotie Eboh and two others. He revealed this during an interview with Vanguard correspondents in December 2013.
According to him, he was at his duty post on a road block at Sango-Ota, outskirts of Lagos in January 1966 in a special operation to curtail the Operation Wetie crisis ravaging the then Western Region. According to him, it was one night when some military convoy passed his road block, heading towards Abeokuta. At about 30 minutes later, the military convoy returned and headed back to Lagos. Unknowing to Babankowa, Tafawa Balewa and his men were in the convoy with the military men. The military men had taken them to a bush at Sango-Ota, killed them and left their bodies to rot.
Late Babankowa said it was the following morning that it was announced that there was a coup, the Prime Minister together with some others had been killed in the coup and their bodies were missing.
Babankowa said some few days later, he had cold and had to visit the hospital for treatment. While at the hospital, he had some of the natives complaining about the smell of decaying bodies in a part of their community. It was then that he and his men arranged to go to the place where they discovered it was Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and his aides, their bodies already decaying.
"I had cold and had to go to hospital for treatment. I understand a bit of Yoruba language, it was in the hospital at Sango -Otta that I was listening to some patients talking about some odour of some dead bodies in their vicinity. They were complaining about the odour. Meanwhile the nation was already talking about the missing bodies of these leaders. So, when I got to the office, I divided my men into groups, while some went to the particular place where the patients in the hospital talked about, others went the other way. Lo and behold, the bodies of these leaders were there on the ground, already decomposing. Tafawa Balewa’s body was in his white attire, his cap on the floor and his rosary near the cap and maggots had started coming out of it. That was the most terrible sight I have ever seen in my life," he said.
Read more on the interview
According to him, he was at his duty post on a road block at Sango-Ota, outskirts of Lagos in January 1966 in a special operation to curtail the Operation Wetie crisis ravaging the then Western Region. According to him, it was one night when some military convoy passed his road block, heading towards Abeokuta. At about 30 minutes later, the military convoy returned and headed back to Lagos. Unknowing to Babankowa, Tafawa Balewa and his men were in the convoy with the military men. The military men had taken them to a bush at Sango-Ota, killed them and left their bodies to rot.
Late Babankowa said it was the following morning that it was announced that there was a coup, the Prime Minister together with some others had been killed in the coup and their bodies were missing.
Babankowa said some few days later, he had cold and had to visit the hospital for treatment. While at the hospital, he had some of the natives complaining about the smell of decaying bodies in a part of their community. It was then that he and his men arranged to go to the place where they discovered it was Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and his aides, their bodies already decaying.
"I had cold and had to go to hospital for treatment. I understand a bit of Yoruba language, it was in the hospital at Sango -Otta that I was listening to some patients talking about some odour of some dead bodies in their vicinity. They were complaining about the odour. Meanwhile the nation was already talking about the missing bodies of these leaders. So, when I got to the office, I divided my men into groups, while some went to the particular place where the patients in the hospital talked about, others went the other way. Lo and behold, the bodies of these leaders were there on the ground, already decomposing. Tafawa Balewa’s body was in his white attire, his cap on the floor and his rosary near the cap and maggots had started coming out of it. That was the most terrible sight I have ever seen in my life," he said.
Read more on the interview
