By FEMI FALANA On June 12, 1994, Chief M. K.O. Abiola declared himself President on the basis of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, which he won fair and square. General Sani Abacha’s military junta arrested him and charged him with treasonable felony at the Federal High Court. While he was held incommunicado in a military custody for 4 years, Chief Abiola was subjected to horrendous psychological and mental torture. Even though Chief Abiola had severe health challenges, he was denied medical attention by the maximum dictator. His parlous medical state was confirmed on April 27, 1998 by Archbishop Desmond Tutu who had visited Nigeria at the instance of President Nelson Mandela and met with the imprisoned Chief Abiola. The revered priest reported that Abiola’s health and living conditions were severely deteriorating and called for his urgent release to enable him to take care of his failing health. The call was ignored by the military regime. Following the controversial death of Abacha on June 8, 1998, he was succeeded by his Chief of Defence Staff, General Abdusalami Abubakar as Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria. The new military junta ordered the immediate release of all political prisoners including General Obasanjo (rtd) and other convicted coup plotters from prison custody. However, the detained Abiola was not released by Abubakar on the ground that he refused to renounce his claim to the presidency. Nigerians were shocked when the American delegation announced that Abiola had passed away during a brief meeting with him on July 7, 1998. The Chukwudifu Oputa Panel instituted by the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration to investigate the egregious human rights abuse which defined military rule in Nigeria probed the death of Chief Abiola. Abubakar turned down the request of the Oputa Panel to explain his role in the entire saga as he did not want to be subjected to cross examination by lawyers. About 28 years later, the former military ruler has, in his autobiography entitled “Call of Duty,” dismissed claims that Abiola was poisoned, insisting that an autopsy conducted by foreign pathologists had attributed his death to natural causes. In dismissing the allegation that Chief Abiola was poisoned, Abubakar did not react to the evidence led before the Oputa Panel that there are poisons that cannot be detected by autopsy. In washing off his hands like Pontius Pilate, Abubakar stated that, “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.” Abubakar also relied on the text of the press conference of Thomas Pickering and the account of Susan Rice contained in her memoir titled, “Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For.” While denying that Abiola was poisoned, she confirmed that he had suffered medical neglect. According to her, she noticed that “Abiola’s ankles were swollen and that about five minutes into their conversation, Abiola started to cough, at first mildly and intermittently, and then wrackingly with consistency.’’ Abubakar further referred to a radiological report by Colonel (Dr) O. Awofeso, then Chief Consultant Radiologist at the Nigerian Army Defence Hospital, Sokoto, dated September 28, 1994, which had found that Abiola’s heart was enlarged with “right ventricular preponderance” consistent with hypertensive cardiac disease. Abubakar therefore argued that, “it was public knowledge that Abiola was managing certain medical conditions which could seriously affect the quality of life of any human being.” Even though, General Abubakar knew that Chief Abiola’s health was endangered during his 4-year dehumanizing incarceration by the maximum ruler, Abacha, he deliberately refused to accede to the request to allow him to attend to his health. The request of Abiola’s personal physician, Dr. Ore Falomo to visit him was equally turned down. As if that was not enough, Abubakar subjected Abiola to undeserved mental torture to make him jettison his claim to the presidency. After the fruitless meetings held between Abiola and the service Chiefs on the mandate, Abubakar decided to involve the so-called international community in resolving the political logjam. The then Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, and the Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, were flown in to mount pressure on Abiola to renounce his mandate. In their separate meetings with Chief Abiola, they asked him to trade off the June 12 mandate for his release from custody. Even though rejected the offer of conditional release, both diplomats gave the impression, in their press statements, that he had agreed to forgo the mandate. In a letter addressed to Chief Gani Fawehinmi SAN on July 6 1998, Abiola denie
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