Former Nigerian Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar, has revealed dramatic details surrounding the death of former military ruler Sani Abacha in June 1998, describing how he was unexpectedly summoned to the Presidential Villa and kept in the dark about the unfolding events.
In his autobiography, Call of Duty, Abdulsalami recounted that on the morning of June 8, 1998, he received an urgent message that Abacha wanted to see him. At the time, he feared the meeting was connected to an assignment to represent Nigeria at an ECOWAS summit in Togo.
He explained that with then Chief of General Staff, Lt.-Gen. Oladipo Diya, in detention over an alleged coup plot, he had effectively become the second-ranking official in government and was frequently tasked with representing Abacha at official functions.
According to Abdulsalami, he informed his wife of his concerns and instructed his orderly to prepare his travel belongings before heading to the Presidential Villa.
In the book, he wrote: “On Monday, 8 June, I received a call very early in the morning that he (Abacha) wanted to see me. I quietly prayed that he would not send me to Togo where there was going to be an ECOWAS summit. I was tired of going everywhere.”
He said another call followed while he was preparing to leave, stressing the urgency of the meeting. Believing he might be travelling, he quickly dressed in a tracksuit and slippers and headed to the Villa.
Upon arrival, however, he was directed to a waiting room instead of being ushered directly into Abacha’s office, an arrangement he found unusual given his close working relationship with the late ruler.
After waiting for about an hour alongside then Chief of Army Staff, Major-General Ishaya Bamaiyi, Abdulsalami became suspicious. He later discovered that the door to the waiting room had been locked from the outside.
“Something kept telling me that something was wrong but I could not place a finger on it,” he recalled.
The mystery was eventually cleared when the late Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Coomassie, entered the room and asked the two men to follow him.
As they walked toward the residence, Abdulsalami said he questioned why he had earlier been told that Abacha was in his office. It was then that Coomassie informed him that the Head of State had died.
“I was shocked. I asked him what happened and he insisted we proceed first. He did not tell me anything else,” Abdulsalami wrote.
Abacha died on June 8, 1998, after nearly five years in power. Abdulsalami subsequently emerged as Nigeria’s Head of State and supervised the transition that returned the country to democratic rule in 1999.
