Daniel Etim Effiong reveals how his father escaped execution but spent 34 years in prison

• Actor Daniel Etim Effiong revealed his father was jailed for 34 years after being implicated in the 1986 Vatsa coup plot.

• Moses Effiong was not a plotter but was named by a friend; his death sentence was commuted after a last-minute separation from those executed.

• Both Vatsa (posthumously in 2025) and Moses Effiong (in 2020) were later pardoned by Nigerian presidents.

In a recent interview with Diary of a Naija Girl, Nollywood actor Daniel Etim Effiong revealed something most of his fans might be familiar with: that his father spent decades in prison after being caught in the crossfire of one of the most chilling episodes of Nigeria's military era. 

According to the actor, he was just one year old when his father, Retired Lt. Col. Moses Effiong, was arrested. The year was 1985. General Ibrahim Babangida had seized power from General Muhammadu Buhari on August 27 of that year in what was described as a palace coup. Within months, whispers of a counter-plot were already circulating within the barracks.

The alleged mastermind was General Mamman Jiya Vatsa, poet, Minister of the Federal Capital, member of the Supreme Military Council, and crucially, Babangida's childhood friend. 

Beginning in the first week of December 1985, over a hundred army, air force, and naval officers were arrested en masse for allegedly plotting to overthrow Babangida's four-month-old government. 

Vatsa and sixteen others were tried before a Special Military Tribunal at the Brigade of Guards headquarters in Victoria Island, Lagos, beginning January 27, 1986.

Moses Effiong was not a plotter. His closest friend in the army had confided in him about the plans to remove Babangida from power. When the coup was exposed and arrests began, that friend, under pressure, gave up his name. Moses was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death by firing squad.

“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.” 

What saved his life was something Daniel called “miraculous”. As he recounted, a man walked into the room with a list of three names. Moses Effiong's name was on it, and the three men were pulled aside. According to Daniel:

"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."

He continued stating that his father's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and he spent the next 34 years behind bars until his pardon.

Vatsa was executed by firing squad on March 5, 1986, alongside nine other officers. He maintained until the end that the money at the centre of the allegations, traced through a farming loan, was exactly what he said it was.

In 2025, President Bola Tinubu granted him a posthumous pardon.

Moses Effiong received his own presidential pardon in 2020, after 34 years. Daniel Effiong was 35 years old when his father was released.

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