30 Years After the Phantom Coup Verdict: Life Was Meant to Decay But God Said Live – Col. Bello Fadile (rtd)
It was Friday, 14th July 1995, a date etched into my memory not just by ink or emotion, but by the weight of destiny itself. We were loaded into the back of the Army 911 truck, heading towards Kofo Abayomi Road, Victoria Island, Lagos. Shackled not just by handcuffs, but by the silence of injustice and the dark cloud of what lay ahead, we held on to what little hope we had.
And in the spirit of soldiers who still believed in the Almighty even when the system denied us justice, we lifted our voices in defiant faith, singing:
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“He’s able, abundantly able to deliver and to save,
He’s able, abundantly able to deliver those who trust in Him.
We trust in You, Lord… Hallelujah!”
That song wasn’t just melody it was warfare. Our anthem of hope. Our only weapon in a season when loyalty was criminalized, and truth was silenced by power.
On arrival, we were moved into the waiting room of the junta’s Special Military Tribunal. A message came down through the ranks—an instruction for the senior most Colonel: we were to speak ill of the Commander-in-Chief and his men after the tribunal’s judgment. But even in that moment, I knew we were not standing before justice but merely watching a drama unfold its script already written in Abuja, and our names scribbled in its closing act.
At exactly 1000 hours, the drama began. We were marched into the courtroom, with N/3137 Colonel RSB Bello-Fadile leading in chains, accused number one. And then, like a sentence echoing through time, the verdicts were read one after the other:
Guilty… guilty… guilty.
Then it came:
“You are hereby sentenced to death by firing squad. May God have mercy upon your soul.”
But unknown to men mercy was already at work. Divine counsel was rewriting what earthly rulers had concluded.
Three months later, the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Three years, seven months, and eighteen days after that pronouncement, the gates of confinement opened, and freedom returned not just as pardon, but as restoration. My rank as Colonel was reinstated with full benefits, and more importantly, my dignity was redeemed.
And now, today, Monday, 14th July 2025, exactly thirty years after, I stand not as a statistic in the books of forgotten martyrs, but as a testimony of divine preservation a living proof that when God speaks, no decree of man can stand.
It can only be God.
When the dust settles, and history takes stock, this truth remains unshaken: man may sit in judgment, but God alone gives the final verdict. I was meant to be buried, forgotten, and erased but instead, I was lifted, remembered, and restored.
And again, our song returns—not just as memory, but as a legacy:
“He’s able, abundantly able to deliver and to save,
He’s able, abundantly able to deliver those who trust in Him.
We trust in You, Lord… Hallelujah!”
And yes, with hearts full of reverence and trembling joy, we declare:
“Jesus reigneth, let the earth tremble, tremble!
Let the nations tremble! Let systems of injustice tremble!
Jesus reigneth, let the earth tremble!”
It is well with my soul.
So says the Lord of Hosts, and so it shall forever be.
Thirty years ago, life was meant to decay, but today, life stands graced, not erased.
I salute the mercy of God, the power of endurance, and the testimony of time.
To Him alone be all the glory, honour, and praise forever and ever, Amen.
