Abacha Imprisoned My Father For 34 Years – Daniel Etim-Effiong

Daniel and Toyosi Etim-Effiong

Nollywood actor Daniel Etim-Effiong has shared how his father spent 34 years in prison. He recently revealed that his dad was wrongly linked to the 1986 Vatsa coup plot, and Nigerians have been reacting.

Disclosing that his father was one of the over 100 military officers who got arrested over allegations of plotting to overthrow Abacha’s government, Daniel said that his dad was implicated after a friend mentioned his name under interrogation.

Stressing that his father played no part in the coup, the moviestar noted that President Muhammadu Buhari eventually granted Moses Effiong a pardon after three decades in prison.

His words, “When the whole thing was leaked, and he was arrested, his best friend was arrested. They asked his best friend who did you tell about this coup, and his best friend said, my dad.

He brought out the 3 soldiers and said these 3 soldiers are to stay here, the rest of you are going on transfer. The three soldiers were like ‘ah ah, we too, we want to go on transfer now, why are we not going on transfer, we’re all together’. They took those going on transfer to the back of Kirikiri and shot them. That’s how they died.”

WOW.

Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in The New York Times. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition for the term, which has made it a subject to several controversies.

The origin of the term “Nollywood” remains unclear; Jonathan Haynes traced the earliest usage of the word to a 2002 article by Matt Steinglass in the New York Times, where it was used to describe Nigerian cinema.

Charles Igwe noted that Norimitsu Onishi also used the name in a September 2002 article he wrote for the New York Times. The term continues to be used in the media to refer to the Nigerian film industry, with its definition later assumed to be a portmanteau of the words “Nigeria” and “Hollywood”, the American major film hub.

Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, and marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries – each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents. However, there is the English-language film industry which is a melting pot for filmmaking and filmmakers from most of the regional industries.