June 12 will forever be an iconic date for
democracy in the history of the Nigerian nation.
On June 12, 1993, Nigeria conducted one of the
fairest elections in its history which saw
Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola emerge as
President.
His victory was however short-lived as the then
Head of State, Ibrahim Babaginda annulled the
elections in a bid to hold on to power.
The annulment of the elections led to a
leadership crisis which eventually saw Sani
Abacha leading a coup later in the year.
Following the take-over by Sani Abacha, Abiola
was arrested, imprisoned until his death on June
7, 1998.
The Publisher of Ovation Magazine and a former
presidential candidate, Dele Momodu was a
close associate of Abiola before his tragic death
which was mourned by the whole nation.
Speaking to Punch Newspaper in an interview,
Dele Momodu chronicles the oppression Abiola
suffered from the military government which
eventually led to his death.
On how Abiola was arrested by Sani Abacha,
Momodu said, “That was under Abacha. When
Abacha came and Abiola declared himself the
winner, he disappeared and reappeared. The night
he reappeared, I was one of the operatives (aides)
who brought him out from Surulere where he was
hiding – in Senator Wahab Dosumu’s house. In
fact, it was in Prince Ademola Adeniji’s vehicle
that Abiola rode in from Surulere to Toyin Street
(Abiola’s house) at Ikeja.”
“Abiola had his other personal assistants with him
who did the operation. We had a number of media
(men). So, we drove to Toyin Street where about
600 policemen were already waiting for him. We
got to Abiola Crescent; a lot of people were there.
Abiola went inside and told me that I could go
home because I had been working for about 48
hours non-stop. He said I should freshen up and
see my wife. My marriage was under two years
old at that time. So, I went home and came back
to Abiola’s house at about 9pm.”
“By the time I got to the gate, the police had
surrounded the place and they said I couldn’t
enter. I asked why and they said the instruction
was to lock down the house and not allow
anybody in or out. I didn’t have a phone to call
Abiola, so I went to a business centre on Allen
Avenue, where I then put a call through to him.
When he came on the line, he said, ‘Dele, I think
you should go home. I have heard that they are
coming to arrest me at 1am. But I don’t think Sani
can try it o.’ That was his last statement to me on
earth.”
“The following morning, news came out that
Abiola had been arrested in the night, as he had
told me, and they took him away to an unknown
destination. We tried to find out where he was but
we didn’t know until Dr. Doyin Abiola asked us to
come to the house and in the first set of letters
Chief wrote out of detention, he mentioned my
name that I should be asked to come to Gashua,
where he was. He said I should come disguised
with a tape recorder and a camera.”
“So, I prepared for the journey. I even dressed like
a Ghanaian native so I would look different. I was
supposed to fly from Lagos to Maiduguri, from
there to Damaturu and then again to someplace in
Gashua. That was how the journey was planned.
But, unfortunately on my way, I stopped by the
house to see Dr. (Doyin) Abiola and she told me
that Chief had been moved and I never saw him
again. This was in 1994 after the ‘Epetedo
Declaration.”
Detailing how he got to know about the iconic
Abiola’s death, Momodu said,
“Obaigbena was in London; Tokunbo Afikuyomi
and I had gone to see him somewhere very close
to Park Lane. From his house, we walked to
Marble Arch and got a black cab to our respective
homes. But before we did, we bought the first
edition of Sunday Times of London and in it, there
was a report by a Sunday Times correspondent
who had accompanied the United Nations’
Secretary General at the time, Dr. Kofi Annan, to
Nigeria to see Abiola. The man was writing about
his experience when he met Abiola; Abiola was
watching television but had turned off the volume.
They had taken away the remote control, so he
was watching football but he could not hear the
commentary.”
“He was in total darkness and didn’t know what
was happening outside. He didn’t know anything.
I asked why they would be treating the man so
poorly — a man who won (presidential) election.
In the morning, one of his daughters, Wuraola,
called me and said she was on her way to
Cambridge and asked what I had picked up from
Nigeria. I told her what I read in the Sunday paper
and she started crying that ‘Oh! Does this mean
we cannot rescue our dad?’ She broke down
emotionally and we decided that we would have to
do something.”
“At that time, the human rights community was
saying Abiola should not accept any condition and
he should remain there. But we were saying we
should appeal to the human rights community to
allow this man to go before they kill him. That
was my first premonition that something untoward
might happen to Abiola. As a matter of fact, I
called a friend of mine who was working at Lagos
Television 8, Mrs. Funke Moore, and told her, ‘I
am very troubled about Abiola because I believe
they will kill him.”
“She said, ‘Oh Bobby, you have come with your
exaggerations. Who will kill Abiola? Nobody can
kill Abiola?’ That was July 5, 1998, two days
before Abiola’s death. You won’t believe that on
July 7, a blind man called Yinka Ibidunni woke me
up and started sobbing, ‘Mr. Momodu! They want
to kill your father and you are sleeping.’ He could
hear my voice; I sounded very sleepy. I said, ‘Who
wants to kill my daddy?’
“He said, ‘The Americans are in
town.’ (Ambassador) Thomas Pickering had come
with Susan Rice to visit Abiola. He asked, ‘Didn’t
you listen to BBC World Newsjust now? Pickering
and Rice were asked what they were doing in
Nigeria and they said they had come to persuade
Abiola to forget about his mandate.’ The
interviewer had asked them, ‘What are you going
to tell Abiola that Annan or Emeka Anyaoku, who
was Secretary General of the Commonwealth at
the time, has not told him.’
“They both said they were going to repeat the
same thing to him to forget about his mandate.
The man asked them, ‘What if he says no to you
too.’ They said he would have become a danger
to the country. The man’s interpretation therefore
was that becoming a danger to the country meant
that they would have to eliminate him.”
“But nobody knew what happened. I was in touch
with Wuraola after that and she said we should
release a statement appealing to the human rights
community to allow Abiola to accept any condition
and just go, so as to stay alive. You would not
believe it; we drafted Wura’s statement. She faxed
it to me and it came out of my machine at about
4.03(pm) and I had called THISDAY, Nigerian
Tribune and the rest of them that they should
expect the release.”
“As I was about to fax those things to the media, I
got a call from Wuraola screaming on the phone.
‘Dele Momodu! Dele Momodu! Have you heard?!’ I
thought she was going to say they had released
MKO. I said, ‘What is it?’ She said, ‘Daddy is
dead!’ I was saying, ‘What is this woman talking
about?’ She said, ‘Please, call our friend at Skye
News to check! Please! Please!’ She was going on
and on and then dropped the phone. My wife was
just sitting down there watching all of the drama.”
“So, I said to myself, ‘Before calling anybody, why
don’t I just tune in to Skye News?’ If something of
that nature had happened, Skye News would
definitely have picked it up. As soon as I switched
on my television, I saw, ‘Breaking news: Nigeria’s
Moshood Abiola is dead.’ The world went dead for
me instantly. I was confused; I was going gaga
and then my phone started ringing — CNN,
everybody was calling me. I dressed up quickly
and rushed over to Abiola’s house at Chester
Terrace in Regent’s Park, London. His children
were there, except Kola, the eldest. There were all
kinds of sympathisers around. They started
making plans on how to get to Nigeria
immediately.”
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