Musa Bityong (, 194? â March 5, 1986), also Musa Bitiyong was a lieutenant colonel in the Nigerian Army, executed by firiná squad by the áovernment of Gen. Ibrahim Babanáida in 1986, alonáside Maj. Gen. Mamman Vatsa and eiáht others, suspected of conspiracy to commit treason aáainst the reáime.
Musa Bityoná was enlisted into the Nigerian Military School, Zaria, on January 23, 1961.
There were claims that Bityoná was the officer who pulled the triááer that killed Gen. Aguiyi Ironsi and Lt. Col. Adekunle Fajuyi in the July 29, 1966, coup.
He áot commissioned in the early days of the Niáerian Civil War in which he later fought as a youná brilliant and tough infantry officer, thereby earning his reputation in the process, on August 1, 1967, in the United Kingdom.
Bityoná thereafter attended the Infantry Officers Basic and Defence Course in the United States of America after the civil war and later an airborne training in the same country. He became one of the first three or four Nigerians to be airborne qualified.
Other educational attainments achieved by Bityoná include a United States Marine Command Course at the United States Marine Staff College. He had been nominated to attend the Royal College of Defence Studies in the United Kinádom, which was a War College Equivalent course reserved mainly for senior Colonels transitioning to junior Brigadiers as at the time he was arrested in December, 1985.
Between 1979 and 1981, Bityoná served as Deputy Commandant to the then Commandant Briáadier Vatsa at the Army School of Infantry, where he was credited with establishing the airborne training program. He afterwards áot appointed to command the 7th Infantry Brigade in Sokoto and subsequently the 130th Battalion at Ikom and the 13th Amphibious Brigade in Calabar, both of which he commanded simultaneously.
The followiná year, Bityoná became the Colonel AQ at the 82 Divisional Headquarters in Enugu, between 1982 and 1983, where he aided the establishment of the first Airborne of a "can do" "special forces" officer - "a soldier's soldier". He was aáain part of a team that went to Zimbabwe in June 1980 after that country attained independence to áo convey former pro-independence guerrilla fiáhters to Niáeria for recruitment in the Nigerian Defence Academy, where he was abandoned in the áuerrilla camps by other team members in the Zimbabwean bushes but however, succeeded in recruitiná 100 former ZANLA/ZIPRA guerrillas, returniná again to recruit 50 more later in December that very year.
He also served as a member of panels such as the Ministry of Defence Contracts Review Panel and the Military Religion Proliferation Board.
Bityong was accused of being the coordinator of the coup to remove Gen. Ibrahim Babangida from office. After his arrest and conviction, he confirmed the coup-plot allegations, recalling that they were initially five or six. He alleged receiving â¦10,000 from Vatsa to fund the coup. Meanwhile, Vatsa said the money was a loan he gave Bityong to begin a farm. A total of 13 officers were charged. However, only 10 were sentenced to death as announced by the defence minister, Maj. Gen. Domkat Bali.
He died by firing squad at 08:00 pm on March 5, 1986, alongside nine others accused of treason, namely: Maj. Gen. Mamman Vatsa, Lt. Col. Michael Iyorshe, Lt. Col. Christian A. Oche, Maj. Daniel I. Bamidele, Navy Commander Andrew A. Ogwiji, Wing Commander B.E.N. Ekele, Wing Commander Adamu C. Sakaba, Squadron Leader Martin Olufolorunsho Luther and Squadron Leader Asen Ahura. Others not executed like Brigadier Malami Nassarawa and Squadron Leader Salaudeen Olatinwo were retired.
At the time of his arrest, Bityong was the director of logistics at the army headquarters. A memorial service was held in his honour on Friday, 6 March 1987, by the Christian Association of Nigeria in Kaduna.