We were told he ate an Apple from a woman and died but there is another version of the story of how General Sani Abacha died...
Read on
Former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha (rtd), has dismissed insinuations that the military ruler died after eating an apple from his concubines.
Giving a detailed account on how Abacha died, Al-Mustapha said contrary to insinuations, the sudden collapse of the health system of Abacha started on June 7, 1998, right from the Abuja International Airport,immediately after one of the security personnel, who accompanied President Yasser Arafat of Palestine shook hands with him.
"Happily enough, by 9p.m., he was bouncing and receiving visitors until much later when General Jeremiah Useni, the then minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), came to see him. He was fond of the Head of State.
They were very good friends. They stayed and chatted together till about 3.35a.m."
Al-Mustapha continued: "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, Useni, was out of the Head of State's Guest House within the Villa.
I then decided to inform the ADC and other security guards that I would be on my way home to prepare for the early morning event at the International Conference Centre.
"At about 5 a.m., the security guards ran to my quarters to inform me that Abacha 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 some 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, 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 realised that there was a danger. I immediately called the Head of State's personal physician, Dr. Wali, who arrived in the place in eight minutes from his house 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 Abacha. He even suggested we should allow him access to Chief MKO Abiola.
"We smelt a rat, and other heads of security agencies, on hearing this, advised I move Abiola to a safer place. 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 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 (all retired), who both promptly advised us-the junior officers- against any bloodshed.
They advised we contact General Ibrahim Babangida, 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, Bamaiyi lampooned me,saying: 'Can't you put two and two together to be four? Has it not occurred to you that Useni, who was the last man with the Head of State, might have poisoned him, knowing well that he was the most senior officer in the PRC?"
Comments