Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has recounted how the late military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, allegedly planned to have him killed before eventually ordering his arrest.
Obasanjo made the disclosure in an interview with the BBC, where he revisited the events surrounding his detention under Abacha’s military government and explained how he turned to agriculture after leaving the Nigerian Army.
He said his decision to retire from military service came at a relatively young age, despite having risen to the rank of a four-star general and served as Nigeria’s military Head of State.
Obasanjo explained that after leaving office, he considered farming a worthwhile way to occupy himself, and the venture was progressing well until his arrest.
He said:
“When I was leaving the government as the military Head of State I was leaving too early, I didn’t join the army to retire at the age of 42.”
“At the age of 42 I have become a four-star general, there was nothing I could do in the army, I had become the military Head of State, the highest political office.”
“So what can I do, I decided I will go into farming, it really was going well and it went well until I was arrested.”
Recounting the events that preceded his arrest, the former president alleged that Abacha wanted him eliminated because his continued freedom stood in the way of the military ruler’s plans.
According to Obasanjo, he was unaware of the alleged plot until the American ambassador to Nigeria contacted him while he was travelling and informed him that the United States had offered him political asylum.
He said the offer was based on concerns that he would be arrested if he returned to Nigeria. However, Obasanjo said he rejected the idea, insisting that he had committed no offence that would warrant seeking asylum.
He recalled that upon his return, his passport was seized and security personnel had surrounded his farm.
Obasanjo said an individual dressed in civilian clothing arrived less than 15 minutes later, claiming to have been sent by an Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) to invite him for questioning.
He said he challenged the approach, arguing that if the AIG genuinely needed his assistance, the senior police officer would have come personally.
Obasanjo further disclosed that he drove his own vehicle to the police station, where the AIG informed him that he had received instructions to arrest him.
He said:
“Abacha had decided that I must be liquidated, otherwise he won’t be able to have his way, I didn’t know that. I travelled and was coming back, the American ambassador in Nigeria called me and said his country has offered me political asylum because they know that I will be arrested if I return home. ‘I haven’t done anything, what would they arrest me for? Why would I want a political asylum? When I arrived, they seized my passport and at the gate of my farm, my security said security had surrounded the farm.
“And not up to 15 minutes this man came in with mufti, not uniform, and said I have been invited by the AIG to come and help. I said if the AIG wants me to help, he will not invite me, he will come here.
“It was my own car I drove to the police station and the AIG said, ‘I have been instructed to arrest you.’ I didn’t know that it was Abacha’s decision that some of us must not be kept free otherwise.”
