Daniel Effiong Breaks Silence on Father’s Arrest and Death Sentence Under IBB Regime

Popular Nollywood actor, Daniel Etim-Effiong, has shared a harrowing account of his family’s history, revealing that his father, Colonel Moses Effiong, was once sentenced to death by firing squad during the military regime of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.

According to Etim-Effiong, the ordeal began when his father’s close friend in the Nigerian Army approached him with details of a planned coup to topple the then-Head of State. The revelation placed the senior Effiong in a precarious position, torn between personal loyalty to a colleague and his official duty to the state.

When the plot was eventually foiled and the conspirators arrested, the actor’s father was implicated during interrogations.

The big question became for him, should he tell on his friend or should he not tell on his friend? When the whole thing was leaked, my dad’s friend was arrested, and they asked him, Who did you tell about this coup plot? And he said he told my dad, the actor explained.

Following his arrest, Colonel Effiong was tried by a military tribunal and found guilty of concealment of treason. The tribunal handed down the ultimate penalty of execution by firing squad.

Etim-Effiong, who was an infant at the time, described the period as one of immense psychological weight for his family. However, in a turn of events he described as miraculous, the execution was stayed, and his father survived the ordeal that claimed the lives of many other officers during that era.

Colonel Moses Effiong was among several officers caught in the fallout of the 1986 Vatsa coup or subsequent military purges. While many were executed at the Bar Beach in Lagos, Effiong’s life was spared, and he was later granted a presidential pardon and his rank restored by the civilian administration in the years that followed.

The actor noted that the experience left a permanent mark on his family, influencing his perspective on life and the complexities of the Nigerian military history.