How ex-IGP opened the door for me when I was locked up in Aso Rock room after Abacha’s death – Gen Abdulsalami
Former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd.), has revealed how he was unexpectedly informed of the death of General Sani Abacha after being summoned to the Presidential Villa and locked in a waiting room for more than an hour without explanation.
Abdulsalami disclosed the incident in his autobiography, Call of Duty, unveiled in Abuja on Saturday to mark his 84th birthday. Recounting the events of June 8, 1998, he said he received an early morning call informing him that Abacha wanted to see him.
“On Monday, 8 June, I received a call very early in the morning that he (Abacha) wanted to see me,” he wrote, adding that he initially feared he would be asked to represent the late military ruler at an ECOWAS summit in Togo.
According to him, he arrived at the Presidential Villa dressed in a tracksuit and slippers after being told the matter was urgent. However, upon arrival, he was directed to a waiting room instead of meeting Abacha. Abdulsalami said the situation became suspicious when he and Major-General Ishaya Bamaiyi remained there for over an hour. “To my greatest surprise, the door of the waiting room had been locked,” he recalled.
The former military leader said the mystery was eventually resolved when the then Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Coomassie, arrived and asked them to follow him. “It was at this stage that he informed me that Abacha was dead. I was shocked,” Abdulsalami wrote, explaining that he immediately requested to see the late Head of State’s body and later offered prayers for him.
Although Abdulsalami did not identify those responsible for locking the room, he suggested that some military officers may have been pursuing “other plans” as developments unfolded following Abacha’s sudden death.
Later that same day, the Provisional Ruling Council selected Abdulsalami as Nigeria’s new Head of State. He subsequently initiated a transition programme that culminated in the handover of power to a democratically elected government led by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in May 1999.
