On the morning of 25 October 1993 — barely four months after Ibrahim Babangida had annulled the 12 June 1993 presidential election won by Chief MKO Abiola — four young men in their late teens boarded Nigeria Airways Flight 470, an Airbus A310-222 named Rima River, on a scheduled Lagos–Abuja service. Mid-flight, the group — led by Richard Ajibola Ogunderu, with Kabir Adenuga, Benneth Oluwadaisi and Kenny Razak-Lawal — produced replica firearms, took control of the cockpit, and ordered the captain to divert to Frankfurt. The aircraft did not have the fuel; it was diverted instead to Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, Niger Republic.
The hijackers identified themselves as members of the 'Movement for the Advancement of Democracy' (MAD) and demanded the restoration of Abiola's June 12 mandate, the dissolution of the Interim National Government of Ernest Shonekan, and an end to military rule. After a four-day stand-off, Nigerien commandos stormed the aircraft on 28 October; a Nigerian crewmember, Ethel Chieshe, was killed in the assault. The four hijackers were tried by a Nigerien court, convicted, and served nine years in Niamey's Koutoukalé prison before being released in 2001 and repatriated to Nigeria.
Ogunderu later wrote and spoke openly about the operation, describing it as a desperate civilian response to the closure of every legal channel after the June 12 annulment. The hijack remains the only successful hijacking of a Nigerian commercial airliner.