*Says he took ill while in meeting with American delegation and died later in hospital
*Buhari&s gesture honouring Abiola has laid June 12 agitation to rest – Investigation
By BASHIR ADEFAKA
The DEFENDER reports that although, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, MKO Abiola’s kinsman, was handed over government by North’s General Abdulsalaam Abubakar on 29 May, 1999, he failed to heed the appeals by Nigerians to recognise, honour and immortalise Abiola as winner of the June 12 historic and democratic victory, until another Northerner in President Muhammadu Buhari came and did it following his emergence in 2015.
Former Nigeria’s Head of State, General Abdulsalaam Abubakar (Rtd), has said that late Alhaji Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, popularly called MKO Abiola, died after falling ill while in a meeting with American delegation.
By interpretation, the former ruler said Abiola, who was central point and icon of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election in Nigeria, was not killed.
Speaking in an interview with Trust TV watched online by The DEFENDER on Sunday, General Abubakar, who is Chairman of National Peace Committee, explained that this was contrary to insinuations that Abiola took tea that was allegedly poisoned, before he passed on.
General Abdulsalaam Abubakar (Rtd) while in office as Military Head of State.
Explaining further he said, “Well, I smile because there were lots of allegations here and there that we killed Abiola. As always when I am talking about late Abiola, I still thank God for directing me on things to do when he gave me the leadership of this country.”
Giving the brief but detailed account of how it happened, he started by talking about how only his personal physician had been allowed to see him. However, he said, when he became Head of State, based on consultation and interaction together with Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, he gave the family a date that they could come and see him.
MKO Abiola, ow to be addressed, posthumously as GCFR, has also been immortalized by President Muhammadu Buhari who renamed Abuja National Stadium after him.
For one reason or the other, he said, the Abiola family could not see him all at once and so they were to see him in batches, first of which had taken place a day before his date with death while hoping that the next group of the family “will see him tomorrow”.
“On the day Moshood (Abiola) passed away, may he rest in peace, two to three things happened,bmake me to always say I thank God for the guidance He gave me. I received a delegation from America headed by Pickering, who was then the Secretary of State or so and also on the team was Susan Rice who I can remember very because of her role” during the time.
General Abdulsalaam Abubakar during the interview with Trust TV.
He added that after the normal courtesy meeting him and they (Americans) were leaving his office, Pickering said, “Your Excellency we made a request to see Moshood Abiola but we were denied”, so I said “Why were you denied? Who denied you?
“There and then I made a decision, I said “Look, you will see Moshood definitely, I overrule whoever said you cannot see him”. So I now called my Chief Security Officer, I said “Please make arrangement for this team to see Abiola,” that is one point.”
Continuing he said, “So they (Abiola saw him like yesterday, now this team from US came to see me and I said they could see him. Normally it was in the evenings the family go and see him. So because I had authorized the American team to see him, so the other part of the family were waiting to see him.”
The former Head of State stated that “it was at this meeting when the American team was meeting Abiola that he fell sick, suddenly, and the security officers called the medical team to come and attend to him”, adding that when they saw the situation, they said it was severe and that they needed to take him to the medical centre, which they did.
He explained that it was the medical team plus the American team that took him to the medical centre and that, unfortunately at the medical centre, he gave up.
General Abdulsalaam Abubakar further said “it was then my Chief Security Officer called me and said, “I have bad news for you”.” I asked what it was and he said, “Abiola is dead”. I was shocked “Whaaat! Dead!”
He said his Chief Security Officer told him that he was there with the American team, “at that time I was staying in the barracks, I had not moved to the Villa. So I said okay, take the American team to my house, I will meet them at the house; so I closed from the office, and went there.”
The former Head of State stated that the issue was how he would break the news to Abiola’s family and how his government would tell the world that Abiola had passed on.
He said at this point that he must be thankful to God and again to Ambassador Babagana Kingibe because, according to him, I called on Kingibe and asked him to bring the family of Abiola and when they came, I broke the news.”
The DEFENDER reports that although, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, MKO Abiola’s kinsman, was handed over government by North’s General Abdulsalaam Abubakar on 29 May, 1999, he failed to heed the appeals by Nigerians to recognise, honour and immortalise Abiola as winner of the June 12 historic and democratic victory, until another Northerner in President Muhammadu Buhari came and did it following his emergence in 2015.
By Buhari’s gesture, MKO Abiola was not only recognised with the highest national honour of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) for his victory although denied being sworn in to rule as President and Commander-in-Chief, but also he was immortalized with National Stadium Abuja named after him and Nigeria’s Democracy Day reprogrammed from May 29 to June 12.
President Muhammadu Buhari also honoured lieutenants, who served with Abiola in the struggle for the enthronement of democracy in the country including his running mate, Babagana Kingibe, and Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), respectively, as Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON).
Abiola’s family and democracy activists in the country have since accepted that President Buhari has already laid the June 12 agitation to rest by those “magnanimous decisions” he took “not minding the role Abiola played in sponsoring his Chief of Army Staff Brigadier General (later full General) Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida in the August 1985 coup that cut short his integrity based military administration (December 31, 1983 – August 27, 1985).
