Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has disclosed how the government of
former head of state, General Sani Abacha planned to kill him with an
injection while in prison, but God protected him.
He also disclosed how his late friend, General Shehu Yar’ Adua was killed in a Port Harcourt prison.
Obasanjo and his former deputy, Yar’Adua, were among those who were
convicted by a kangaroo military tribunal for participating in a phantom
coup.
According to Obasanjo, he was serving his 15 year jail term in Jos
before he was transferred to the Yola prison but on the day he was to
depart for Yola, he was made to meet a doctor sent to kill him gradually
with a lethal injection, but he escaped the trap.
The former president made this revelation in his book - MY WATCH - where
he recalled how he was arrested, tried, and convicted and put behind
bars, where he escaped death by a whisker.
According to him, he was told by a warder that a man, whom he later
found to be a doctor, came to see him for medical reasons and said the
Abacha government was worried about his health and mandated him to come
and check his cholesterol problem.
“Earlier, I had alluded to the fact that the magnitude of the flow of
visitors to me had caused Abacha some anxiety. One day, I was suddenly
told that I was being moved. Where to and for what reason, nobody told
me. The movement of prisoners is always shrouded in secrecy for security
reasons, as they would say. One warder who wanted to be helpful came to
tell me that the movement might be to my home. Anyway, by early
afternoon, I was moved to a government quarters in the GRA. There, a man
whom I later realised was a doctor, was waiting for me. He started
talking to me about the concern of the government authority for my
health, especially for my cholesterol level and said he would want to
take my blood for testing.
“I knew very well that I had no cholesterol problem. I was slightly
diabetic and surprisingly, my sugar level had been consistently normal. I
told the man firmly that I did not need a blood cholesterol test and
that the minor medical problem I had was diabetes. I checked my blood
sugar level regularly and I was quite satisfied with my results.
Obviously, he did not expect the reaction he got from me. He had to put
his syringe and needle back and said to me that later, they would follow
up in my new location. He did not look happy but there was not much
else he could do with me at that juncture. As I came to realise later,
Shehu Yar’Adua went through the same process, during which he must have
been injected with what eventually killed him. I could only attribute
the stand I took to the will and guidance of God. I had no premonition
or tip-off,” he recounted.
He further recalled that with the doctor unable to perform his lethal
act of injecting him with the deadly virus or slow poison, he was taken
to the airport, where an Air Force Dornier aircraft was waiting to take
him to his new location.
“But exactly where, I did not know. As I watched the shadow that the
aircraft cast as we moved along, I knew we were moving in some easterly
direction. We arrived in the evening, and I was kept in the aircraft for
two hours while they were preparing my cell in the new location. I was
handcuffed for the entire journey. By the time I came into what turned
out to be Yola prison and my home for the next three years or so, it was
almost ten at night…”
Obasanjo also recalled how he was introduced to one Dr Ajuwon, a
medicine specialist to the Yola General Hospital, who hails from Oyo
state, who became his doctor until his freedom came and he rewarded
Ajuwon with an appointment as his personal physician when he became the
president.
“A few weeks later,” the narrative continued, “a doctor, whom I later
discovered to be Dr Yakasai, came from Abuja wanting to take my blood
for a cholesterol check. He came with a syringe and needle. I insisted
he would not touch me until my doctor was around. The prison authority
sent for Dr. Ajuwon. When he came, he asked the Abuja doctor what he
wanted. Of course, he gave the same story. Ajuwon, who had his own
syringe and needle, there and then and in full gaze of everyone,
including the prison officials, took my blood and gave it to the Abuja
man.
“Ajuwon asked when we would have the results sent to us. The man
replied, ‘Within forty-eight hours of my getting to Abuja.’ I remained
in Yola for at least another two years after that visit, and no blood
test result was ever sent to Dr. Ajuwon or to me. Obviously, he came for
a devilish act, but God intervened once again.
“It was not too long after that visit that we received the news of Shehu
Yar ‘Adua’s death. Rumour had it that he was poisoned. The way I was
taken to a government quarters with a man ostensibly wanting to take my
blood for a cholesterol check was the way Shehu was taken and under the
guise of a blood check, a slow poison or virus was injected into his
body..."
