Alligator Blood

In 1989, the military junta of an unnamed African country accuses then Chief of Army Staff, General Usman Jibril Pentami of insubordination and orders his arrest. Major Abbey Gomwalk, Pentami's son-in-law takes this task upon himself for obvious personal reasons. However, when Abbey and his men brings Pentami before the Commander-in-chief, the Guards nearby are subdued and the C-in-C is instead arrested and deposed as it turns out the arrest was used as a charade by Abbey to install Pentami into the presidential residence and in tandem with a concurrently occuring coup by numerous low-ranking officers loyal to Pentami. Fast forward three months later, Pentami, now dictator, has obtained the love and support of his compatriots both high and low through various generous gestures like the release of numerous political prisoners notably amongst them being Lieutenant Colonel Hacourt Raymond, a member of his cabal. Meanwhile, a clandestine group of officers including Abbey himself(who actually became offended after Pentami passed him over and made Raymond second-in-command), have become discontent and decide the new regime must be ousted as quickly as it was contrived over allegations of corruption and misappropriation of public funds. They set about recruiting other Officers who they consider integral for the coup's success. One of such officers, Wing Commander Indian, develops cold feet and hands himself in to the regime's director of military intelligence, Col. Tanko suilaiman, mainly for protection over fear of homicidal reprisal from the conspirators, after he fails to join them. Tanko Suilaiman responds by secretly placing several of the major conspirators under surveillance. Major Sese Alfa, director of army staff duty and plans is implicated in the plot. When Suilaiman confronts him, the colonel is brutally killed by the major. The coup-plotters, seing that the the plot has already leaked and Suilaiman now dead, are forced to hurry ahead with the coup effort rather too rashly. What follows is the most memorable coup d'etat in history with exciting twists and turns. Deceit and betrayal are the highlights of the night as both the regime and the conspirators realize there are saboteurs planted in their midst.Though they initially took over major cantonments in the capital city, the night grew darker for the mutineers when Alfa is spetacularly killed by Raymond after he single-handedly took over Linca Cantonment and tried to conscript the there-detained colonel to the side of the coup. To make matters worse, Major Abbey inadvertently shoots his own wife and president's daughter (whom he truly loves) when he besieges the presidential residence. In the end, the coup is ultimately crushed when Pentami's wife, Halimah and General Muktar Mustapha, Pentami's best friend since childhood, join the party. Having survived the night only by skin of the teeth, Pentami, who himself came into power by means of a coup d'etat, resorts to rounding up the surviving members of the conspiracy and executing them by firing squad in a bid to send a message to future conspirators. But he soon discovers that it is even more complicated than he thought, for the mastermind of the botched coup was in fact, Mustapha, who only jumped ships at the last minute when he realized the coup was destined to fail. Pentami is now faced with a new heart-wrenching dilemma; Execute his best friend too with the others or spare his life at the strong disapproval of the men who are not his friends but whose dangerous loyalty is sworn to him by reason of a common cabal.