Shehu Sani, a former senator from Kaduna State, has disclosed how he prevented former President Olusegun Obasanjo from being assaulted by inmates of the Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison in 1995.
Sani made this known while speaking at a lecture in Abuja on Thursday.
Sani was among the pro-democracy activists and dissidents imprisoned by the military junta under Sani Abacha, who ruled from 1993 to 1998.
Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s Head of State from 1976 to 1979 and civilian president from 1999 to 2007, was also jailed in 1995 for an alleged coup plot.
Recounting events from that period, Sani said he, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, and Obasanjo were transferred to Kirikiri prison following their arrests. Upon seeing Obasanjo, armed robbers in the prison began shouting and insulting him. Sani noted that he calmed the inmates, urging them to remember that, despite their grievances, Obasanjo was now also an inmate.
“In 1995, a team of soldiers, policemen and DSS visited my house in Kaduna. It was a journey that began and lasted for four years.
“I was picked up from Kaduna and brought to Lagos with the late General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. From the airport, we were led to the DSS headquarters, where we met President Olusegun Obasanjo.
“Unfairly from the soldiers, they handcuffed me but did not do so for Obasanjo or Yar’Adua. Obasanjo looked at me and asked me who I was and if I had stolen something for them to have handcuffed me. I told him I was an activist,” Sani recounted.
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