Professor Sadiq Suleiman Wali was General Sani Abacha’s personal
doctor. Professor Wali spoke to the press, revealing the details of Abacha’s
sudden death seventeen years after his mysterious demise.
Sani Abacha’s sudden death caused lots of rumours
An event in 1998 changed the Nigerian history. By June 1998, Sani Abacha had
ruled Nigeria for almost five years. Isolated by the West, Abacha had promised
democratic elections and a transition to civilian rule by October 1998, but with
just months to polls, all the political parties nominated General Abacha as
their candidate for president.
READ ALSO: Nigerians React To Abacha’s Newly Discovered $370m Loot
Professor Sadiq Suleiman Wali was General Sani Abacha’s personal doctor. Professor Wali describes Abacha as “a quiet person, calm person. He could be really firm on some issues, but normally he didn’t talk much”.
READ ALSO: Federal government opens up why Abacha received centenary award
Professor Wali has served as physician to the three previous Nigerian heads of state after being reluctantly recruited to that role in the early 1980-s. He considered himself politically neutral and lived outside the sprawling heavily guarded presidential complex known as Aso Rock in the capital Abuja. But he was a fixture in the presidential entourage.
READ ALSO: Gumsu Abacha Angrily Reacts To New Lawsuit Against Her Brother
Professor Wali says Abacha’s health was OK just before his death. “Abacha was generally healthy though he had some health issues, he was treated, he’s responded [to that treatment] very well. He didn’t have any heart-related diseases at that time.”
READ ALSO: ‘My Husband’s Death Was Like A Coup’ – Maryam Abacha
On the 7 of June, 1998 Wali’d been with Abacha, as he hosted the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and all seemed well. The next morning General Sani Abacha was due to fly to the OAU summit being held in Burkina-Faso and professor Wali was due to go with him.
Professor Wali recounts that “around 6 am I had a phone call from his security officers, and they said, “please come, come to the villa, come urgently!” Before I even could get ready, they came and picked me. I had no idea what it all was about.”
The car carrying the doctor sped towards the presidential villa through a special entrance – a shortcut which only the president was allowed to use.
READ ALSO: 7 Things History Wont Forget About Abacha
The doctor realised something was seriously wrong.
“I arrived then I saw chief security there and he said “doctor come in, please, come in!” We all rushed and I just saw the president. There was another doctor who came earlier, resuscitating him. Abacha was in the sitting room. He was on the couch. He was in his normal work clothes. I didn’t panic. I’ve seen a lot of serious problems before in my practice, but to affect him was very tough, definitely. I joined and we did as much as we could to resuscitate him. But I realised that he was dead because he was fuming. We just continued resuscitation and even injected some things, but it didn’t work.”
READ ALSO: Rare Photo Of Former First Lady, Maryam Abacha
After 40 minutes trying to resuscitate the stricken general, Professor Wali said General Abacha had died. “I said, sorry – there’s nothing we can do”.
There was no immediate public announcement, in a country prone to coups, Abacha’s head of security first increased the guard around the presidential complex and then called the heads of the armed forces to gather to decide on his replacement.
“Immediately the security officer took over, and he invited all the service chiefs to come to Abuja, by then most of them were based in Lagos.” says doctor Wali.
When the service chiefs arrived, some of them asked to see the body to pay their respect to their former leader.
READ ALSO: Abacha Secured 60 False Security Vote Letters To Loot CBN — US
“They wanted to make sure, that he is dead. And some of them were crying” – tells Wali.
Professor informed the family of what have happened. Obviously, the sudden death of an apparently healthy head of state raised a few questions.
Professor Wali was determined that there should be an autopsy to find out what caused the sudden heart attack. After much deliberating, the family declined, preferring the quick burial in line with Islamic tradition. But the doctor was determined to find some clues as to what have happened.
READ ALSO: Sadiq Sani Abacha Writes Open Letter To Prof. Wole Soyinka Over His Statement
“I still try to take some samples of blood and urine and hair and things like that, just thinking for the future chemical tests,” Professor Wali said, adding that “it’s very difficult to say [whether he died of natural causes]. What I can see. The blood test we did, has shown some raised cardiac enzymes [proteins that are released into the blood by dying heart muscles].That’s why we thought maybe it was cardiac attack.”
READ ALSO: PHOTOS: Maryam Abacha Celebrates 68th Birthday
Every Nigerian has his own theory about what happened to General Abacha. There are rumours that he has been poisoned, or that he spent a night entertaining young ladies. Professor Wali conmented on those rumours that “when I entered [Abacha’s premises], there were no ladies. It might be true but I did not see them. Concerning the poison, as I said no post-mortem has been done, so I couldn’t assure whether he was poisoned or it was a heart attack.”
READ ALSO: Abacha’s Daughter Tempted To Join APC
While the generals deliberated on who would take over, plans were made to take Abacha’s body in his hometown of Kano later that day. It was decided to finally tell the public what had happened. But the mystery around Abacha’s death still remains seventeen years after his sudden and unexpected demise.
Earlier Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, Chief Security Officer (CSO) of General Sani Abacha, who was Nigeria’s military Head of State from November 1993 to June 1998, told the press his own version of Sani Abacha’s last day.
Sani Abacha’s sudden death caused lots of rumours
READ ALSO: Nigerians React To Abacha’s Newly Discovered $370m Loot
Professor Sadiq Suleiman Wali was General Sani Abacha’s personal doctor. Professor Wali describes Abacha as “a quiet person, calm person. He could be really firm on some issues, but normally he didn’t talk much”.
READ ALSO: Federal government opens up why Abacha received centenary award
Professor Wali has served as physician to the three previous Nigerian heads of state after being reluctantly recruited to that role in the early 1980-s. He considered himself politically neutral and lived outside the sprawling heavily guarded presidential complex known as Aso Rock in the capital Abuja. But he was a fixture in the presidential entourage.
READ ALSO: Gumsu Abacha Angrily Reacts To New Lawsuit Against Her Brother
Professor Wali says Abacha’s health was OK just before his death. “Abacha was generally healthy though he had some health issues, he was treated, he’s responded [to that treatment] very well. He didn’t have any heart-related diseases at that time.”
READ ALSO: ‘My Husband’s Death Was Like A Coup’ – Maryam Abacha
On the 7 of June, 1998 Wali’d been with Abacha, as he hosted the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and all seemed well. The next morning General Sani Abacha was due to fly to the OAU summit being held in Burkina-Faso and professor Wali was due to go with him.
Professor Wali recounts that “around 6 am I had a phone call from his security officers, and they said, “please come, come to the villa, come urgently!” Before I even could get ready, they came and picked me. I had no idea what it all was about.”
The car carrying the doctor sped towards the presidential villa through a special entrance – a shortcut which only the president was allowed to use.
READ ALSO: 7 Things History Wont Forget About Abacha
The doctor realised something was seriously wrong.
“I arrived then I saw chief security there and he said “doctor come in, please, come in!” We all rushed and I just saw the president. There was another doctor who came earlier, resuscitating him. Abacha was in the sitting room. He was on the couch. He was in his normal work clothes. I didn’t panic. I’ve seen a lot of serious problems before in my practice, but to affect him was very tough, definitely. I joined and we did as much as we could to resuscitate him. But I realised that he was dead because he was fuming. We just continued resuscitation and even injected some things, but it didn’t work.”
READ ALSO: Rare Photo Of Former First Lady, Maryam Abacha
After 40 minutes trying to resuscitate the stricken general, Professor Wali said General Abacha had died. “I said, sorry – there’s nothing we can do”.
There was no immediate public announcement, in a country prone to coups, Abacha’s head of security first increased the guard around the presidential complex and then called the heads of the armed forces to gather to decide on his replacement.
“Immediately the security officer took over, and he invited all the service chiefs to come to Abuja, by then most of them were based in Lagos.” says doctor Wali.
When the service chiefs arrived, some of them asked to see the body to pay their respect to their former leader.
READ ALSO: Abacha Secured 60 False Security Vote Letters To Loot CBN — US
“They wanted to make sure, that he is dead. And some of them were crying” – tells Wali.
Professor informed the family of what have happened. Obviously, the sudden death of an apparently healthy head of state raised a few questions.
Professor Wali was determined that there should be an autopsy to find out what caused the sudden heart attack. After much deliberating, the family declined, preferring the quick burial in line with Islamic tradition. But the doctor was determined to find some clues as to what have happened.
READ ALSO: Sadiq Sani Abacha Writes Open Letter To Prof. Wole Soyinka Over His Statement
“I still try to take some samples of blood and urine and hair and things like that, just thinking for the future chemical tests,” Professor Wali said, adding that “it’s very difficult to say [whether he died of natural causes]. What I can see. The blood test we did, has shown some raised cardiac enzymes [proteins that are released into the blood by dying heart muscles].That’s why we thought maybe it was cardiac attack.”
READ ALSO: PHOTOS: Maryam Abacha Celebrates 68th Birthday
Every Nigerian has his own theory about what happened to General Abacha. There are rumours that he has been poisoned, or that he spent a night entertaining young ladies. Professor Wali conmented on those rumours that “when I entered [Abacha’s premises], there were no ladies. It might be true but I did not see them. Concerning the poison, as I said no post-mortem has been done, so I couldn’t assure whether he was poisoned or it was a heart attack.”
READ ALSO: Abacha’s Daughter Tempted To Join APC
While the generals deliberated on who would take over, plans were made to take Abacha’s body in his hometown of Kano later that day. It was decided to finally tell the public what had happened. But the mystery around Abacha’s death still remains seventeen years after his sudden and unexpected demise.
Earlier Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, Chief Security Officer (CSO) of General Sani Abacha, who was Nigeria’s military Head of State from November 1993 to June 1998, told the press his own version of Sani Abacha’s last day.
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