“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.
[This happened] immediately after one of the white security operatives
or personnel who accompanied President Yasser Arafat of Palestine shook
hands with him (General Abacha).
See full details of the explosive revelations below…
I 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 6pm; his doctor came
around, administered an injection to stabilize him. He was advised to
have a short rest. Happily, enough, by 9pm; 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
3.35am. 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 5am; 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 Abacha 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 9am. 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 9am.
Situation became charged however, when one of the Service Chiefs, Lieutenant Gen. 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.
– what you’ve just read is the version of the ‘dreaded’ Major Hamza
Al-Mustapha of the events before and after the controversial death of
Nigeria’s maximum dictator, late General Sani Abacha.