Former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd.), has recounted the dramatic and mysterious events that unfolded on the day Nigeria’s former military ruler, General Sani Abacha, died in June 1998.
Abdulsalami, who succeeded Abacha as Head of State following his death, made the revelation in his autobiography, Call of Duty, describing how he was unexpectedly summoned to the Presidential Villa on the morning of June 8, 1998, only to be locked in a waiting room for more than an hour without explanation.
According to him, he received an early morning call informing him that Abacha wanted to see him urgently. Initially worried that he might be assigned to represent Nigeria at an ECOWAS summit in Togo, Abdulsalami prepared for a possible trip before heading to the Presidential Villa.
Upon arrival, he was informed that Abacha was in his office and was directed to wait in a reception room. However, as the minutes stretched into an hour, he became increasingly concerned by the unusual situation.
“At any time I went to see him, regardless of who was with him, I would still go in,” Abdulsalami wrote. “After waiting for about half an hour, I reasoned that it was odd.”
He said Major-General Ishaya Bamaiyi later joined him in the waiting room. The two officers eventually discovered that the room had been locked from the outside.
“I decided to go and see Abacha by any means because I could not understand why I should be kept that long. To my greatest surprise, the door of the waiting room had been locked,” he recalled.
The former military leader said his concerns deepened as he sensed that something was wrong but could not determine what had happened.
The mystery was eventually cleared when the then Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Coomassie, arrived and opened the door.
According to Abdulsalami, Coomassie simply told them, “Let’s go,” and led them towards Abacha’s residence.
It was during that walk that the police chief delivered the shocking news.
“I informed him that I was told Abacha was at the office. It was at this stage that he informed me that Abacha was dead. I was shocked,” Abdulsalami wrote.
Abacha’s death on June 8, 1998, marked a turning point in Nigeria’s political history, paving the way for Abdulsalami’s emergence as Head of State and the eventual transition to democratic rule in 1999.
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