Former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday morning recounted how he was almost set free from Yola prisons commando-style by “international friends”.
Although he did not state the year, he was in prison from 1995 to 1998 on allegations of coup plot against the military government of Sani Abacha.
He said when he was sent to prison, “some of my international friends sent a message that they were ready to storm the Yola prisons and rescue me in a helicopter and take me to safety in Cameroon, but I said no, if you do that I will not leave the prison”.
Obasanjo was speaking at the 20th anniversary of the death of Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, a retired major general and his deputy when he was military head of state from 1976-1979.
Both Obasanjo and Yar’Adua were arrested in 1995 over what many considered a phantom coup allegation by Abacha.
