* Says son was innocent
By Aideloje Ojo
Minna
The family of former FCT minister, General Mamman Jiya Vatsa has commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the state pardon granted to their son, 39 years after his execution for an alleged coup plot against General Ibrahim Babangida regime in 1986.
Vatsa a renowned poet was executed along with nine other military officers in 1986 after a Military Tribunal found them guilty of an alleged coup plot despite pleading innocent to the allegations.
The family has since the consistently appealed to every successful administration to grant their son a state pardon insisting that he was framed up in the coup saga.
The family said in a statement issued in Minna on Friday by its Spokesman Jonathan Vatsa, said it received the news of the state pardon with jubilations and appreciations to President Tinubu.
“The news of the pardon by president Tinubu is the greatest moment of joy since the late Vatsa was executed 39 years ago. President Tinubu has wiped away the tears of the family after 39 years of sorrow and sadness.
After several appeals to every successful administration, God has finally used president Tinubu to console the family, the Gulu Vatsa community, Lapai local government and the entire state”.
Accordingto him, “Today is the happiest moment in the life of the family after 39 years of sorrow and sadness following the killing of our late father, brother and uncle. Though nothing can bring him back to life, the family is consoled by this display of statesmanship by our dear president Tinubu. He has written his name in gold and history will forever remember him”.
Vatsa said that justice can never be denied but can only be delayed, adding that the family is convinced that the late General Vatsa must be happy today in his grave by this singular act of compassionate by president Tinubu.
He described the alleged 1986 coup as a frame up, and the trial, a stage managed one just to eliminate the late Vatsa out of envy and hatred for a man who has a root and identity.
He explained that late Domkat Bali once conceded in an interview that the evidence against General Vatsa was weak and that he doesn’t know whether he was supposed to have been killed.
“That is why the family still maintained that the late Vatsa was innocent of the coup. But we still thank President Tinubu for his magnanimity in granting him the state pardon. How we wished this was happening when the late General Vatsa’s wife, some of his late children were still alive”.
