How I Rehabilitated Obasanjo, Nigerian Ex-president Goes Down Memory Lane
- A former Nigerian military leader, Abdulsalami Abubakar, has said that he was instrumental to Olusegun Obasanjo's rehabilitation after the later left prison
- Abubakar recalled that Obasanjo's release from prison came about when he took over government in 1998
- The ex-military head of state noted that he pleaded with Obasanjo to drop his planned lawsuit against the government at the time
General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd) in a Daily Trust interview revealed that back in 1998 when he took over the government follwing Sani Abacha's death, he was helpful to Olusegun Obasanjo.
The former Nigerian head of state said like every other person thrown into prison by his predecessor, Abacha, Obasanjo was rehabilitated by his regime.
Abubakar also noted that he advised the former president at the time to forget about the past when the latter came to him with plans to sue the government.
He recalled that Obasanjo was complaining then that the government ruined his reputation, right and businesses.
His words:
“We released Obasanjo and other prisoners and pardoned them. So, when Obasanjo was released he came to see me, saying he was going to take the government to court.
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“Why are you going to do that?” He said his business was crumbled by the military, his human rights have been violated, that he did not commit any coup and so on and so forth. I said “Sir, please let bygone be bygone, thank God you are alive today, forget about these things. Some of the issues you mentioned, within my power I will look into that, so we left it at that."
When asked if he rehabilitated the former president, Abubakar rresponded:
“Like I had all other prisoners! What do you mean by I had to rehabilitate him?
“Of course not only him, all people that were imprisoned in one way or the other, we tried to rehabilitate them; to help them in one way or the other.”
Nigerian ex-president gives new version of how MKO Abiola died
Meanwhile, Abubakar gave an entirely different version of how late Cjief MKO Abiola died while in prison.
In an exclusive interview Abubakar denied the widespread allegation that top officials of the then federal government killed Abiola.
According to the former Nigerian leader, the embattled winner of the 1999 election was sick while incarcerated and died after he was rushed to a hospital from prison.
Source: Legit.ng
