Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has said that the history of Nigeria’s political crisis would be incomplete without recognition of the role of the late Police Commissioner Ibrahim Babankowa.
The former Vice President, in a fitting tribute to the late police commissioner, said the late Babankowa would be remembered for the role he played by finding the body of the late Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, whose corpse was deposited in a shallow grave in Lagos during the January 15, 1966 political crisis triggered by a military coup.
He said the late Babankowa did not set out to be famous, but history accidentally cast him into limelight.
Atiku recalled that the whereabouts of the late Balewa and his Finance Minister, Festus Okotie Eboh, were unknown until they were found by their bullet-riddled bodies in a shallow grave.
Although Babankowa ultimately became a politician, the former Vice President noted that most Nigerians would remember him more for discovering Balewa’s remains than his political involvements.
According to Atiku, Babankowa’s role in crushing the Maitatsine religious riot of 1980 was also overshadowed by his historical act of January 1966.
He prayed to Allah to grant the deceased eternal rest in peace, and give his family the strength to bear the loss.
