THE ARREST OF DIMKA
After the assassination of Nigeria’s third Military Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed in Lagos State, Nigeria in the early hours of Friday 13 February, 1976, Dimka proceeded to the broadcast studio of Radio Nigeria where he announced to the Nation as follow:

“Good morning fellow Nigerians. This is Lt. Col. B. Dimka of the Nigerian Army calling. I bring to you good tidings. Murtala Mohammed’s deficiency has been detected. His government has now been overthrown by the young revolutionaries. All the 19 Military Governors have no power over the States they now govern. The state affairs will be run by Military Brigage Commanders untill further notice. All Commissioners (Ministers today) are sacked, except for the armed forces and Police Commissioners who will be redeployed. All senior military officers should remainn calm in their respective spots. No Divisional Commander shall issue orders or instructions until further notice. Any attempt to foil these plans from any quarters will be met with DEATH. You are warned. It is all over the 19 States. All borders, air and sea are closed untill further notice. Curfew is imposed from 6am to 6pm. Thank you. We are all together.”

The country was gripped in fear and no one knew what would happen next. At this time, the Head of State had been killed along with his ADC. While in the studio repeating the broadcast at intervals, Lt. Col. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida approached him at the studio and successfully dislodged him. Dimka then fled and for many hours, he was nowhere to be found. Dimka had escaped to an unknown destination. Radio announcements were made every 5 minutes calling on anyone who sees Dimka to report him to the authorities nearest to location. Still, no one found Dimka.

Dimka had escaped first to Jos (he was from present day Plateau State) and later, he moved to Afikpo in present day Ebonyi State where he spent the night with his long standing girlfriend by name UGO. Dimka had served as a Nigerian soldier in Afikpo during and after the Nigeria-Biafra War and he was a jolly good fellow and very popular among the locals. He was a lover of the bottles and he was well known in bars and public places in Afikpo and environs.

Shortly after dropping his items in the hotel, he strolled out and walked across the road (maybe to make a purchase of something). This is how the locals saw him and were able to identify him clearly as the wanted man whose name has been broadcast on radio every other minute.

Reports then went to the military and his hotel (FRIENDSHIP HOTEL) was surrounded at night. On hearing knocks on the door, Dimka escaped through the window and ran off to the bush. Ugo (who was oblivious of what Dimka had done in Lagos) was left alone in the room. Dimka crossed over to the main road and again, escaped. He was a smart person. He entered a taxi and went off.

Along the way (perhaps sensing that he will eventually be arrested in view of the many roadblocks and repeated radio broadcasts which he had equally heard inside the taxi) Dimka surrendered himself at a check point to a police officer and uttered the following words: “This is Lt. Col. BS Dimka, the man you have been looking for.”

He brought out his hands and was immediately handcuffed and taken to the nearby military unit. Signals were sent to Lagos that Dimka had been arrested. He was then flown to Lagos where he was taken before a military court martial and tried for treason. The most wanted man in Nigeria at the time was finally arrested .

At the Tribunal, Dimka owned up to his act and said on camera that, as a military officer and gentleman he was not going to tell a lie. In his words, “Of course, being a soldier, I have an honor to maintain and I believe I have no reason at the stage to lie”.

He was found guilty along with a host of others and on 15th May, 1976 (three months after the coup) Dimka was tied to the stake at the Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison in Lagos and shot. Dimka was 35 years old at the time. While a lot of his contemporaries at the time were trained in the UK and India, Dimka was trained at the Australian Army Officer Cadet School, Portsea, Australia. At 35 he was already a Lt. Colonel and his career in the military was beautiful and bright but everything about him took a nosedive from the moment of the assassination of the Head of State.