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General News of Tuesday, 8 June 2021

Source: www.mynigeria.com

Sani Abacha died on this day in 1998

Sani Abacha Sani Abacha

Today marks exactly 23 years since military head of state, General Sani Abacha passed away.

Abacha also served as the Chief of Army Staff from 1985 to 1990, Chief of Defence Staff from 1990 to 1993, and Minster of Defence.

He became the first Nigerian Army officer to attain the rank of a full military general without skipping the ranks.

His legacy

The astute military man was not remembered by Nigerians in a desirable way. According to reports, his rule saw the records of high human rights abuses and several political assassinations.

He is regarded as a dictator. Sani Abacha ranked 4th in a 2014 report of the ten most self-enriching leaders in the previous two decades. He was alleged to have embezzled $1 billion – $5 billion.

Rumor surrounding his death

A publication by the Irish Times on July 15, 1998, indicated that the late military leader may have been poisoned by dissatisfied junior officers.

"I know for a fact he was poisoned," a diplomat with close contacts in the Nigerian military told The Irish Times. "My sources in the army have confirmed this. A small group of officers thought the only solution was to poison him and this is what they did."

"I can tell you Abacha left the presidential villa in the early hours of the morning to go to one of two guest houses in Abuja (the capital)," says the diplomat, who asked not to be named. "This was something he did regularly. He went there to meet two Indian girls in the morning of June 8th and that is where he was poisoned."

The diplomat who made the revelation believed there was also a growing feeling of insecurity in the army, after the arrest of high-ranking officers for alleged coup-plotting in 1995 and again in 1997.