Former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd.), has rejected long-standing claims that the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, was poisoned while in detention.
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Abdulsalami said an international autopsy conducted after Abiola’s death concluded that he died from natural causes, not poisoning.
The former military ruler made the disclosure in his memoir, Call of Duty, which was unveiled in Abuja as part of activities marking his 84th birthday.
For nearly three decades, controversy has surrounded Abiola’s death on July 7, 1998, with many Nigerians continuing to suspect foul play. However, Abdulsalami maintained that available medical evidence showed that Abiola suffered a fatal heart attack.
“I do not believe Abiola was poisoned. The family requested an autopsy and we assembled American, British, Nigerian and Canadian pathologists to conduct it. The autopsy report attributed his death to natural causes,” Abdulsalami wrote.
According to him, Abiola had been managing serious health challenges years before his death.
“As far back as 1994 when he was arrested by the Abacha Administration for declaring himself President, it was public knowledge that Abiola was managing certain medical conditions which could seriously affect the quality of life of any human being,” he stated.
Abdulsalami recalled that Abiola collapsed during a meeting with a visiting United States delegation led by former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Tom Pickering, and former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Susan Rice.
Relying on Rice’s account of the incident, Abdulsalami said she observed that Abiola’s ankles were swollen before he began coughing severely shortly after the meeting started.
“Rice said she noticed Abiola’s ankles were swollen. About five minutes into their conversation, according to her, ‘Abiola started to cough, at first mildly and intermittently, and then wrackingly with consistency,’” he wrote.
He said Abiola later complained of feeling unusually hot and asked that the air-conditioning be increased before doctors were invited.
Abdulsalami also cited Pickering’s recollection of Abiola’s final moments, stating that a doctor arrived within 10 minutes and recommended immediate hospital attention.
“A doctor arrived within 10 minutes and called for immediate hospital attention. We all helped to put him in a car, there was no ambulance immediately available. We followed him to the clinic of the Head of State of Nigeria, where doctors immediately began to work on him, but unfortunately at the end of their efforts it was not possible and he died,” Pickering said.
The former Head of State also narrated how he received the news of Abiola’s death from his Chief Security Officer.
“Aliyu, my CSO, called me. As soon as I picked, he said, in a shaky voice, that there was a problem. I asked: ‘What problem again?’ He said Abiola was dead. My head went blank,” Abdulsalami wrote.
He argued that allowing the American delegation to meet Abiola helped dispel possible allegations of concealment or cover-up.
According to him, if Abiola had died without being seen by the foreign delegation, the suspicion surrounding his death would likely have been worse.
“If we had not allowed the American delegation to see him and he had died in custody, it would have been a different story. It would have been insinuated that he had long died and we were trying to cover it up,” he said.
Also speaking at the book launch, former President Olusegun Obasanjo disclosed that efforts to secure Abiola’s release were already nearing completion before his sudden death.
Obasanjo said Abdulsalami had kept him informed about the process, adding that Abiola’s son, Kola Abiola, was already in Abuja to pick up his father when the unexpected happened.
“Your next move was how to get MKO Abiola released and you kept me regularly informed. Kola was already in Abuja to pick up his father when the unexpected happened,” Obasanjo said.
He also recalled receiving the shocking news of Abiola’s death from Abdulsalami.
“I remember you telling me on the telephone, ‘our man is dead,’” Obasanjo added.
Abdulsalami’s account provides one of the most detailed insider narratives on Abiola’s final hours in detention and the events surrounding the death of the man whose annulled June 12 mandate became a defining chapter in Nigeria’s democratic struggle.
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