I Prevented Kirikiri Inmates From Assaulting Obasanjo – Shehu Sani

Shehu Sani, a former senator of Kaduna State, has revealed how he saved 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 who were rounded up and jailed by the military junta led by Sani Abacha, who was president from 1993 to 1998.

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Obasanjo, who was Nigeria’s Head of State from 1976 to 1979 and returned as civilian president in 1999–2007, was arrested in 1995 for allegedly plotting a coup and jailed.

Sani, while recounting events from the era, said he, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and Obasanjo were moved to Kirikiri prison after their arrests.

According to him, armed robbers in prison began shouting and insulting the former president when they saw him, adding that he talked to the inmates to calm down and that no matter their grievances with Obasanjo, he was now 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.