Revisit the allegations of coup, killing of our son – Vatsa family

The family of late former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) General Mamman Jiya Vatsa executed over an alleged coup plot in 1986 has called on the Federal Government to investigate the trial and the killing of their son.

The family through the younger brother and spokesman, Mr Jonathan Vatsa a former Niger state Commissioner for Information and Strategy made the call while speaking to newsmen in Minna.

He noted that now that a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has ordered the federal government to revisit the case of the brutal murder of Dele Giwa, the issue of General Vatsa and nine other military officers should also be revisited.

It would be recalled a Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday ordered the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF) to resume the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the 1986 murder of Dele Giwa, the renowned investigative journalist and founder of Newswatch Magazine.
Dele Giwa was brutally murdered in his Lagos home on October 19, 1986, through a letter bomb during the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida.

Vatsa a former Niger state Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) said the coup allegations against General Vatsa and nine other military officers was a frame up to kill them, while urging the federal government to re-investigate the matter.

According to the family spokesman,” What we are appealing is for the Federal Government to order investigation into the killing of our brother and the nine other officers just as the Federal High Court has ordered for the investigation into the killing of the veteran Journalist, Dele Giwa”

“All these happened in 1986 under one administration so if justice must be done to one, it should be done to all”.

The 1986 coup was a complete frame up against the late General Vatsa just to eliminate him.
“We have not seen where a soldier who does not command any battalion as at the time he was framed up could lead a coup plot that is why we want the trial and the execution investigated.

He insisted that the death of their brother still remains very fresh not only in the minds of the immediate family but the entire Gulu Vatsa community because he was the light of the people.