Revealed; Abacha Died On A Chair

By Gideon Njoku

Since former Head of State, General Sani Abacha, suddenly died in one of the many Guest Houses in the Presidential Villa, there have been many speculations on  the cause of his death and/or how he died.

The most popular is the story of two “apples” who were with him. When they say that, what they mean is that the General was in the company of two foreign female guests when he suddenly collapsed and died. The suspicion has always been there that, perhaps, there was more to his death, that the female guests knew what happened to him, and perhaps, they were used to target Abacha.

A few days to his death, a number of Nigerians who saw the state of the late Head of State when he went to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, to receive the former Libyan President, Muammar Ghadafi, now late, suspected he was ill, very ill.

He had lost weight. The colour of his skin kind of changed. His face was drawn and ashened. He looked tired. But nobody thought anything of the sudden changes until that night of 8th June, 1998, when he died at the age of 54.

Now, a new angle, perhaps, the most reliable version of how he died has surfaced. It has always been there, in print, but obviously, nobody took serious note until now when the person who revealed it passed.

In an interview in 2015 with Weekly Trust, the  Secretary to the Government of the Federation, under Abacha, Gidado Idris, an accomplished Civil Servant and technocrat, revealed how Abacha was when his body was found.

Gidado granted the interview to  Weekly Trust to mark his 80th birthday.

And it turned out to be a bombshell.

Aside from how Abacha was when his body was seen, he also revealed that Abacha had another “coup” in the offing which he planned to execute days before he died. He planned to retire the man who succeeded him in office, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who was then the Chief of Defence Staff. He also planned to retire the then Chief of Army Staff, General Ishaya Bamaiyi.

Gidado also revealed the intrigues that produced Abdulsalami as the Head of State, and how it was Bamaiyi who saved the day.

On Abacha, he said the former Head of State was found dead whilst still sitted on a chair. On the floor beside him was an inhaler, an indication that Abacha was suffering from asthma, and may have had an attack in the last moments of his life on earth. What it means is that there was no foul play as has always been suspected.

When Weekly Trust asked Gidado if he thought there was more to the General’s death, he told the Newspaper:

“The General was found on a chair with an inhaler, for asthma, on the floor. I never knew he was asthmatic until that day. When I met him two days before he died, he seemed normal even if he was coughing a bit.

“I knew he was ill, but I didn’t know what was wrong. I wouldn’t say he was targeted.”

Abacha was Nigeria’s Head of State from 1993 to 1998.