How my dad was sentenced to death over Vatsa coup but survived,” – Daniel Etim Effiong reveals
Nigerian actor and filmmaker Daniel Effiong has recounted how his father, Lt.
Nigerian actor and filmmaker Daniel Effiong has recounted how his father, Lt. Col. Moses Effiong (retd.), was arrested and tried over alleged links to the 1986 Vatsa coup plot against former military president Ibrahim Babangida.
Speaking in a recent interview on the “Diary of a Naija Girl” podcast, the actor said he was just one year old when the military authorities arrested his father for alleged involvement in an attempt to overthrow the government.
He added that the authorities accused his father of treasonable offences connected to the coup plot against Mr Babangida, who had earlier taken power from the late Muhammadu Buhari.
The actor known for his role on “Blood Sisters” said: “His (my father’s) best friend in the army had told him of plans to kick Ibrahim Babaginda out of power. And the big question became for him, you know, should he tell on his friend or should he not tell on his friend? And of course, when the whole thing leaked, and he was arrested, his best friend was arrested too.
“They asked his best friend, ‘Who did you tell about this coup?’ And he said, he told my dad. And of course, my dad was arrested as well. And he was tried, and he was sentenced to death by firing squad.”
Furthermore, Effiong said that following his father’s arrest, authorities investigated him and later sentenced him to death by firing squad.
He added that his father’s friend, who had implicated him, was executed by firing squad alongside the coup leader, Major-General Mamman Jiya Vatsa, among others.
Narrating how his father narrowly avoided the same fate, the actor said, “Miraculously, he survived that ordeal. Two times, my father has experienced angelic intervention. A man walked into the room with a list of, I think, three names. And he called out the three names. And my father’s name was amongst the three names he called out. He brought out the 3 soldiers and said these 3 soldiers are to stay here, the rest of you are going on transfer.
“The three soldiers were like ‘ah ah, we too, we want to go on transfer now, why are we not going on transfer, we’re all together’. They took those going on transfer to the backyard of Kirikiri and shot them. That is how they died. Then my father’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. So he was to remain in prison for the rest of his life”, he said.
Effiong further stated that while his father remained in prison, family members and concerned individuals mounted pressure on the government, urging it not to proceed with his execution.
He explained that this was because his father and several others had no knowledge of the coup and, in his view, “there was no evidence linking them to it.”
“There was no proof that he told my dad anything. My dad was never at these meetings. So it was just his beef with my father, and my father saying he knows nothing about it and is innocent. So you can’t possibly kill a man for that. But military government rule is rule, you know, law is law. If sentenced to death, they should be killed, and they were all going to be killed.
“But last-minute intervention, someone’s head must have touched, and the person said, ‘You know what?’ Let’s just excuse these three people first; we will look into their case later. Let’s let them stay on one side first. So carry these and go and kill. As they were trying to kill him, he was like, ‘Where is Effiong?’ ‘Why is Effiong not here?’”
He added that after the initial execution order was carried out and his father’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, he was transferred to Kano Central Prison to serve his term.
“My dad wrote a book about it, and all of this is from the book. Anyways, because I was one at the time. So that’s how he survived that ordeal. And then he went to prison.”
Furthermore, the actor said that following his father’s ordeal, his mother relocated the family to Benin in Edo State to live with her relatives.
He added that while they were in Benin, his mother visited his father every two weeks until an unfortunate incident occurred.
Opening up on the incident, he noted, “On one of those trips to visit him, she (my mum) had an accident, and she lost her life. Of course, I was four, and I have one memory of that incident. I remembered waking up very early in the morning and realising that my mom was travelling. And, of course, I made a fuss about wanting to go with her, as kids usually do. And I cried and cried. I must go with her. And I remember her pulling me off and handing me over to a nanny and telling the nanny to take me away.
“That was the last time I ever saw her. And of course she died, and that broke my father. But a few years later, someone else came into the prison with another paper and said, ‘This man has to be released.’ Why? Nobody knows. No question. He had to be released and was released. But the backstory is that pressure again was put on IBB and that before he left power, that was one of the things that he did was to say, release this man. But he wasn’t granted a presidential pardon.”
Effiong said that Mr Babangida did not grant his father a presidential pardon, a decision he claimed adversely affected his life.
He said the situation affected his business and other aspects of his life until former President Buhari eventually granted him clemency in 2020.
“All those gratuities, salaries, everything. So full circle restoration, everything was granted to him, which was like a full circle moment for him and a beautiful, beautiful end to that chapter of his life, and that happened.”
He added that after his father was released, he started by getting to know his children properly rather than making assumptions.
Effiong stated that his father humbled himself to their level and made deliberate efforts to connect with them, among other things.
Reflecting on what this taught him as a husband and father, the actor said, “So that taught me about connection, about being, about connecting as a human being first, not as a father, just as a human being. That respect first. Of course, when we tried to get out of the way, he put us back in line, but just that connection, speak to us.
“When my father wanted to remarry, he called us and said, ‘Look, I want to get married again.’ That’s the kind of father he was. When he wants to make a major decision, he would call us and say, ‘This is what I want to do.’ Not because he owed us that, but because that was the kind of father he wanted to be, you know. He taught us to pray.”
