“When I got to the bedside of the Head of State, he was already gasping.
Ordinarily, I could not just touch him. It was not allowed in our job.
But under the situation on ground, I knelt close to him and shouted,
“General Sani Abacha, Sir, please grant me permission to touch and carry
you.”
Contrary to insinuations, speculations and sad rumours
initiated by some sections of the society, I maintain that the sudden
collapse of the health system of the late Head of State started previous
day (Sunday, 7th June, 1998) right from the Abuja International Airport
immediately after one of the white security operatives or personnel who
accompanied President Yasser Arafat of Palestine shook hands with him
(General Abacha) I had noticed the change in the countenance of the late
Commander-in-Chief and informed the Aide-de-Camp, Lt. Col. Abdallah,
accordingly. He, however, advised that we keep a close watch on the Head
of State.
Later in the evening of 8th June, 1998, around 6p.m; his
doctor came around, administered an injection to stabilize him. He was
advised to have a short rest. Happily, enough, by 9p.m; the Head of
State was
bouncing and receiving visitors until much later when General
Jeremiah Timbut Useni, the then Minister of the Federal Capital
Territory, came calling. He was fond of the Head of State. They were
very good friends.
They stayed and chatted together till about
3.35a.m. A friend of the house was with me in my office and as he was
bidding me farewell, he came back to inform me that the FCT Minister,
General Useni was out of the Head of State’s Guest House within the
Villa. I then decided to inform the ADC and other security boys that I
would be on my way home to prepare for the early morning event at the
International Conference Centre.
At about 5a.m; the security guards
ran to my quarters to inform me that the Head of State was very
unstable. At first, I thought it was a coup attempt. Immediately, I
prepared myself fully for any eventuality.
As an intelligence
officer and the Chief Security Officer to the Head of State for that
matter, I devised a means of diverting the attention of the security
boys from my escape route by asking my wife to continue chatting with
them at the door – she was in the house while the boys were outside.
From there, I got to the Guest House of the Head of State before them.
When
I got to the bedside of the Head of State, he was already gasping.
Ordinarily, I could not just touch him. It was not allowed in our job.
But under the situation on ground, I knelt close to him and shouted,
“General Sani Abacha, Sir, please grant me permission to touch and carry
you.” I again knocked at the stool beside the bed and shouted in the
same manner, yet he did not respond. I then realized there was a serious
danger. I immediately called the Head of State’s personal physician,
Dr. Wali, who arrived the place under eight minutes from his house.
He
immediately gave Oga – General Abacha – two doses of injection, one at
the heart and another close to his neck. This did not work apparently as
the Head of State had turned very cold. He then told me that the Head
of State was dead and nothing could be done after all.
I there and
then asked the personal physician to remain with the dead body while I
dashed home to be fully prepared for the problems that might arise from
the incident. As soon as I informed my wife, she collapsed and burst
into tears. I secured my house and then ran back.
At that point, the
Aide-de-Camp had been contacted by me and we decided that great caution
must be taken in handling the grave situation.
Again, I must
reiterate that the issue of my Boss dying on top of women was a great
lie just as the insinuation that General Sani Abacha ate and died of
poisoned apples was equally a wicked lie. My question is: did Chief
M.K.O Abiola die of poisoned apples or did he die on top of women? As I
had stated at the Oputa Panel, their deaths were organized. Pure and
simple!
It was at this point that I used our special communication
gadgets to diplomatically invite the Service Chiefs, Military Governors
and some few elements purportedly to a meeting with the Head of State by
9a.m. at the Council Chamber. That completed, I also decided to talk to
some former leaders of the nation to inform them that General Sani
Abacha would like to meet them by 9a.m.
Situation became charged
however, when one of the Service Chiefs, Lieutenant General Ishaya Rizi
Bamaiyi, who pretended to be with us, suggested he be made the new Head
of State after we had quietly informed him of the death of General Sani
Abacha. He even suggested we should allow him access to Chief Abiola. We
smelt a rat and other heads of security agencies, on hearing this,
advised I move Chief Abiola to a safer destination. I managed to do this
in spite of the fact that I had been terribly overwhelmed with the
crisis at hand.
But then, when some junior officers over-heard
the suggestion of one of the Service Chiefs earlier mentioned, it was
suggested to me that we should finish all the members of the Provisional
Ruling Council and give the general public an excuse that there was a
meeting of the PRC during which a shoot-out occurred between some
members of the Provisional Ruling Council and the Body Guards to the
Head of State
When I sensed that we would be contending with far more
delicate issues than the one on ground, I talked to Generals Buba Marwa
and Ibrahim Sabo who both promptly advised us – the junior officers –
against any bloodshed. They advised we contact General Ibrahim Babangida
(former Military President) who equally advised against any bloodshed
but that we should support the most senior officer in the Provisional
Ruling Council (PRC) to be the new Head of State.
Since the words
of our elders are words of wisdom, we agreed to support General
Jeremiah Useni. Along the line, General Bamaiyi lampooned me saying,
“Can’t you put two and two together to be four? Has it not occurred to
you that General Useni who was the last man with the Head of State might
have poisoned him, knowing full well that he was the most senior
officer in the PRC?”
Naturally, I became furious with General Useni
since General Abacha’s family had earlier on complained severally about
the closeness of the two Generals; at that, a decision was taken to
storm General Useni’s house with almost a battalion of soldiers to
effect his arrest. Again, some heads of security units and agencies,
including my wife, advised against the move.
The next most senior
person and officer in government was General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who
was then the Chief of Defence Staff. We rejected the other Service
Chief, who, we believed, was too ambitious and destructive. We settled
for General Abubakar and about six of us called him inside a room in the
Head of State’s residence to break the news of the death of General
Abacha to him.
As a General with vast experience, Abdulsalami
Abubakar, humbly requested to see and pray for the soul of General
Abacha which we allowed. Do we consider this a mistake? Because right
there, he – Abubakar – went and sat on the seat of the late Head of
State. Again, I was very furious. Like I said at the Oputa Panel, if
caution was not applied, I would have gunned him down.
The
revolution the boys were yearning for would have started right there.
The assumption that we could not have succeeded in the revolution was a
blatant lie. We were in full control of the State House and the Brigade
of Guards. We had loyal troops in Keffi and in some other areas
surrounding the seat of government – Abuja. But I allowed peace to reign
because we believed it would create further crises in the country.
We
followed the advice of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida and the wise
counsel of some loyal senior officers and jointly agreed that General
Abdulsalami Abubakar be installed Head of State, Commander-in-Chief of
the Nigerian Armed Forces immediately after the burial of General Sani
Abacha in Kano. It is an irony of history that the same Service Chief
who wanted to be Head of State through bloodshed, later instigated the
new members of the Provisional Ruling Council against us and branded us
killers, termites and all sorts of hopeless names. They planned,
arranged our arrest, intimidation and subsequent jungle trial in 1998
and 1999. These, of course, led to our terrible condition in several
prisons and places of confinement.
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