June 12: How Abacha planned to kill me, Abiola, Yar’Adua — Obasanjo

Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, has explained how he was able to survive what he described as evil plan of former Head of State, General Sani Abacha, to kill him, after his arrest, alongside General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and business mogul and winner of the June 12, 1993 elections, Chief Mko Abiola, attributing his survival to the special grace of God. Obasanjo, who was at Ogbor Uvuru in Aboh Mbaise, Imo State, last weekend to commission the state-of-the-art Assemblies of God Church, christened ‘’The Noah’s Ark’’, built and donated by a philanthropist and Kingdom investor, Obioma Success Akagburuonye, stated that the then Head of State had boasted that three of them would not come out of the prison alive, so he could remain in power perpetually. He said: “When I was arrested, the man who arrested me, I thought he was making a mistake. He had decided that some of us must be liquidated if he has to be in power permanently. There I was, but then, initially I was confused, I had not done anything wrong. Was it a mistake?

‘’When I realised that it wasn’t a mistake, I was full of prayers, including praying as Stephen prayed but amended my own prayer somewhat. I said whether they know what they are doing or they do not know what they are doing, God forgive them.

“I resigned myself into the hands of God and the man who arrested us boasted that three of us will not come out of the detention or prison alive – that MKO Abiola will not come out alive, that Shehu Yar’Adua will not come out alive and that Olusegun Obasanjo will not come out alive.

‘’Two of the three he had planned not to come out alive did not come out alive, I did come out alive not because of my power but the special grace of God.”

While emphasizing that he was a product of God’s grace, he stated: “If anybody can claim to enjoy the amazing grace of God, I can. I said God has been partial to me in taking care of me.”

He recalled a course he attended in 1959 in Ghana and that out of nine of them from Nigeria that were successful, only two of them were alive today.