Abacha Wanted Me Dead – Obasanjo Opens Up On His Secret Arrest, Why He Rejected US Asylum

Naija News reports that he also recounted how he left the Nigerian Army to become a farmer before his decision to return to the country eventually led to his arrest and imprisonment under Abacha’s administration.

Obasanjo shared the experience while speaking about his encounter with the former military ruler in an interview featured in a video published by BBC News Pidgin on Tuesday.

The 89-year-old explained that he decided to pursue agriculture after leaving office as Nigeria’s military Head of State in 1979.

The former Nigerian leader disclosed that his farming activities were progressing well until Abacha allegedly made plans to have him eliminated.

He said: “When I was leaving government as military head of state, there was, I was leaving too early. I didn’t join the army to retire at the age of 42.

“Now I had to retire at the age of 42. At the age of 42, I had become a four-star general. There’s nothing else I can do in the army. I’ve become the military head of state. That’s the highest political office I could rise.

“So what can I do? I decided I would go into farming. It really was going well, and it went well until I was arrested. Abacha had decided that I must be liquidated; otherwise he would not be able to have his way. I didn’t know that. I was travelling and coming back, and the American ambassador in Nigeria called me and said his country had offered me political asylum because they knew that I would be arrested if I returned home.

“This was difficult for me. I don’t, I haven’t done anything. What do they want to arrest me for? Um, I don’t want political asylum. And when I arrived, they seized my passport; I made for my farm. At the gate of my farm was my security. He waved me down. He said that security had surrounded the farm. And within 15 minutes, this man came in mufti, not in uniform, a policeman, and he said, ‘Well, you have been invited by the AIG to come and help him.’ I said, ‘You are a fool.’

‘If the AIG wants me to help him, he will not be inviting me. He will come here.’ So it was my own car that I used to take myself to the police station. We saw the AIG, and the AIG said, ‘I have been instructed to arrest you.’

“I didn’t know that it was a decision of Abacha that some of us must not be kept free; otherwise, he would feel unsafe. I was put in a place. Then President Jimmy Carter came. He pleaded, and then they put me under house arrest. Then they came one day; I was playing squash at about 1 am.

“They came and said they were taking me away. And they took me away, and from there, I went to prison.”

Copy link Copied! Facebook X (Twitter) WhatsApp Telegram Follow Naija News on Google Author: Doris Ijeoma Israel Doris Ijeoma Israel is an entertainment journalist and graduate of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos, where she obtained a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Mass Communication.

She has several years of experience in digital journalism, covering the Nigerian entertainment industry, with a focus on film, music, celebrity news and developments in popular culture.

Her work also explores the stories and personalities shaping the entertainment industry. She can be reached at [email protected].