Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed that he rejected an offer of political asylum from the United States despite warnings that he faced arrest if he returned to Nigeria during the military regime of former Head of State, General Sani Abacha.
Gatekeepers News reports that Obasanjo made the disclosure at an event organised by the Department of School Library and Media Technology at the University of Ibadan.
The former president said the American ambassador to Nigeria contacted him while he was travelling and informed him that the US government had offered him political asylum because of intelligence that he would be arrested upon his return.
He, however, said he declined the offer because he believed he had committed no offence that warranted seeking refuge outside the country.
Obasanjo, who described Abacha’s alleged plan against him as an attempt to eliminate him, said his farming business had been thriving after he retired from the military at the age of 42, before his eventual arrest.
He said, “Abacha had decided that I must be liquidated. Otherwise, he would not be able to have his way. I didn’t know that.”
The former president further narrated that upon his return to Nigeria, his passport was seized before he proceeded to his farm, where his security personnel informed him that security operatives had surrounded the property.
According to him, a police officer dressed in civilian clothes later arrived and informed him that an Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) had invited him.
Obasanjo said he insisted that if the AIG wanted to see him, he should come personally, adding that he eventually drove himself to the police station, where he was informed that there was an instruction for his arrest.
He also recalled that former United States President Jimmy Carter intervened on his behalf by appealing to Abacha, leading to his placement under house arrest.
However, Obasanjo said security operatives later took him away to prison at about 1 a.m. while he was playing squash.
Obasanjo served as Nigeria’s military Head of State from 1976 to 1979 and later became the country’s civilian president from 1999 to 2007.
He was arrested and imprisoned under Abacha’s administration but regained his freedom following the military ruler’s death in June 1998.
