Dr. Oluranti Afowowe, author of Destiny Anchored on Faith: The Story of Oladipo Diya, has recounted a startling episode from 1996 involving an alleged assassination attempt on Lt. General Oladipo Diya, then Chief of General Staff.
Speaking on the Edmund Obilo podcast, Afowowe claimed that a prominent Yoruba leader had been poised to publicly mourn Diya before the outcome of a plane crash that nearly claimed his life was even known.
“When the attempt was made to kill him on December, 13 1996 in that plane crash, there was a Yoruba leader, a notable Yoruba leader that was already in Abuja Airport wanting to take flight to Ogun State to come and commiserate with Ogun people on the death of General Diya,” Afowowe said.
The incident, which Afowowe described as a deliberate attempt on Diya’s life, occurred during a turbulent period in Nigeria’s military regime under General Sani Abacha. Diya who served as Abacha’s deputy, had a strained relationship with the head of state amid internal power struggles within the military hierarchy.
According to Afowowe, the Yoruba leader’s readiness to fly to Ogun State to offer condolences before Diya’s fate had been officially confirmed, raised troubling questions about foreknowledge and political intrigue surrounding the event.
The 1996 crash, which Diya survived, remains one of the most controversial episodes of the Abacha era, with lingering suspicions about its cause. Afowowe’s revelation adds a fresh layer to the narrative, suggesting that political actors may have been prematurely preparing for a leadership vacuum in the Southwest.
The account underscores the volatile and dangerous nature of Nigerian politics in the 1990s, where high-ranking officials often navigated both overt and covert threats to their lives and positions.
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