Family, community appeal to FG to pardon Vatsa

The President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government has been urged to grant state pardon to the late General Mamman Jiya Vatsa who was executed for coup plotting in 1986. Gen Vatsa who served as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and member of the Supreme Military Council was also an accomplished poet. He was executed […]

The President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government has been urged to grant state pardon to the late General Mamman Jiya Vatsa who was executed for coup plotting in 1986.

Gen Vatsa who served as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and member of the Supreme Military Council was also an accomplished poet.

He was executed by the military regime of Gen Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida on March 5, 1986, following a military tribunal conviction for treason.

The family made the appeal at the weekend in Minna, Niger State, home state of both Gen Vatsa and Gen Babangida, as they marked the 35th anniversary of his death.

Speaking on behalf of the family and Gulum Vatsa community in Lapai Local Government Area, Hon Jonathan Vatsa said they were appealing to the federal government to reverse the decision and grant the general pardon.

Hon Vatsa said, “It is painful that Gen Vatsa was executed as a coup plotter – which he was not – but if the allegation was true, the family and the entire Gulum Vatsa community are begging the federal government to pardon him.

“We also call on his friends and mates to join us in appealing to the federal government to grant him pardon so that his soul can rest. As family and kinsmen, we are not convinced he committed the offence, because at a point in his career, he was quarter master general who was in charge of weapons and he did not stage a coup at that time, why would he then do that when he was a Minister of the FCT?”