Former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd.), has revealed that before he assumed power in 1998, neither he nor General Oladipo Diya, the then Chief of General Staff and second‑in‑command to General Sani Abacha, knew the exact location where Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola was being detained.
Abdulsalami said that, despite occupying senior positions in the military hierarchy under Abacha, key details about Abiola’s incarceration were tightly controlled and kept away from them. He explained that it was only after Abacha’s sudden death on June 8, 1998, and his own emergence as Head of State, that he gained direct access to information regarding Abiola’s custody.
In his account, Abdulsalami stressed that Abacha’s regime operated with a high level of secrecy, especially on sensitive political detainees like Abiola, the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election. He added that this secrecy extended even to top-ranking officers such as Diya, who, despite being officially second‑in‑command, also did not know where Abiola was being held.
The former Head of State reiterated that once he took over, he began consultations and steps aimed at stabilising the country and addressing major political flashpoints, including Abiola’s continued detention. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo recently corroborated this, stating that Abdulsalami was already in the final stages of arranging Abiola’s release before the unexpected happened.
Obasanjo said Abdulsalami kept him regularly informed, and that Abiola’s son, Kola, was already in Abuja to receive his father when news broke of Abiola’s sudden death. According to Obasanjo, Abdulsalami called him on the phone and broke the news with the words, “our man is dead,” a moment that marked yet another turning point in Nigeria’s transition to democracy.
Abdulsalami has also maintained in recent interviews that Abiola was not poisoned, insisting that he collapsed during a meeting with a visiting United States delegation and later died despite efforts by medical personnel at an Abuja clinic. He said members of the US team and his Chief Security Officer were present and witnessed the events leading up to Abiola’s death.
His latest revelations, including the claim that even he and Diya did not know Abiola’s detention location under Abacha, add new layers to the long‑running debates and suspicions surrounding the treatment of Abiola and the circumstances of his death. They also underscore how tightly controlled and centralised decision‑making was within Abacha’s military government.
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