Obasanjo says he rejected US asylum offer before arrest under Abacha

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said he rejected an offer of political asylum from the United States despite being warned that he would be arrested if he returned to Nigeria under the late military Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha.

 

Obasanjo disclosed this in an interview published by BBC News Pidgin on Tuesday.

 

He said he went into farming after retiring from the Nigerian Army at 42, having become a four star general and military head of state, which he described as the highest office he could attain in the military.

 

He said his farming business was progressing until Abacha’s government moved against him.

 

He said the American ambassador in Nigeria told him the US had offered him political asylum because he would be arrested if he returned, but he rejected it because he had committed no crime.

 

He said on arrival in Nigeria his passport was seized and he proceeded to his farm, where he was told security operatives had surrounded the premises.

 

According to him, a policeman in mufti approached him and said he had been invited by an Assistant Inspector General of Police. He said he drove himself to the police station where the AIG said he had been instructed to arrest him.

 

Obasanjo also said former US President Jimmy Carter intervened by appealing to Abacha, which initially led to him being placed under house arrest after being held at an undisclosed location, before he was later taken to prison.

 

He said he was playing squash at about 1 a.m. when security operatives came to take him away.