Nigeria's Historical Throw Back Lane -7

Take a walk down Nigeria's memory lane and see where the path might lead you....

*Flashback*

*Erratic Air head*

Buka Suka Dimka ( ? - May 15, 1976)

Dimka was born by parents of Plateau State origin, details of his initial education is scanty, but he was commissioned Second-Lieutenant into the Nigerian Army, on December 13, 1963, after attending the Australian Army Officer Cadet School, Portsea. He was described as an erratic individual, tribalistic , a drunk and an “air – head” who always spoke before he thought.

Dimka, then Lieutenant with the Nigerian Military Training College in Kaduna, was one of the many officers of northern Nigerian origin (including Lt Colonel Murtala Muhammed (coup leader who Dimka would ironically conspire against and murder 10 years later), 2nd Lieutenant Sani Abacha, Lieutenant Muhammadu Buhari, Lieutenant Ibrahim Bako, Lieutenant Ibrahim Babangida, and Major Theophilus Danjuma among others), who staged what became known as the Nigerian Counter-Coup of 1966  against General Aguiyi Ironsi.

 Dimka along with Lieutenant Dambo are alleged to have shot and killed Lieutenant Colonel Michael Okoro, Commander of the 3rd Battalion during the July 1966 mutiny^. 

Another act of notoriety from the July mutiny was Dimka's pursuit and probable intent to murder his Brigade Major (Samuel Ogbemudia). 

Before the mutiny, Major Ogbemudia had detained Lieutenant Dimka for violating an order forbidding unauthorized troop movement. Under interrogation by Ogbemudia, Dimka complained of ethnic victimization and was subsequently released by Ogbemudia.  

Vexed by Ogbemudia's treatment of him, Dimka hatched a plot to kill him.

Fortunately, Ogbemudia was tipped off by Major Abba Kyari and Colonel Hassan Katsina who provided an escape Landrover armed with an SMG gun. Dimka marshaled a group of northern soldiers who pursued Ogbemudia (sometimes shooting) all the way from Kaduna to Owo, Ondo State where Ogbemudia abandoned his Landrover (which had run out of fuel) and scaled a 6-foot fence into a dense jungle to escape Dimka and his soldiers.

On the 13^th of Febuary 1976, Dimka led a group of soldiers on a coup to topple General Murtala Mohammed, he succeeded in assassinating Murtala along with his aide-de-camp Lieutenant Akintunde Akinsehinwa by ambushing his Mercedes-Benz at a traffic intersection. 

They emptied magazines of bullets into the car which later had only one survivor. 

The coup was crushed several hours later by forces loyal to the government and Dimka fled the premises of Radio Nigeria at Ikoyi where he had gone to make a broadcast to the nation. 

He was almost arrested in the company of a prostitute in Afikpo, present day Ebonyi State. (where he had served as an officer after the war), but he escaped through the toilet window ,ran through farms and boarded a vehicle to Abakiliki, onward to Republic of Cameroon. 

That trip was cut short as he was captured on his way to Abakiliki and ferried to Lagos. During his interrogation (which he did while drinking beer) he implicated a lot of senior military officers including the then minister of defence Major General Illiya Bisalla (who maintained his innocence all through saying .. “I was to be set free yesterday but for this boy Dimka who implicated me. God knows I knew nothing about it. Allah Sarki[God is King]”).. Bisalla was executed alongside Dimka and 31 others  on the grounds at Kirikiri Maximum Prison Lagos by firing squad 

References

  "1976: Lt. Col. Bukar Dimka and six coup confederates". Executed Today. Retrieved 11 January 2015. 

Siollun, Max. Oil, Politics and Violence: Nigeria's Military Coup Culture (1966-1976). Algora. pp. 200–201. ISBN 9780875867090. Retrieved 27 December 2014. 

Famoroti, Francis. "How Dimka, co-plotters were tried, executed for treason". National Mirror. Retrieved 5 January 2015.

Wikipedia.

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