Professor Sadiq Suleiman, personal physician to Nigeria’s former Head of State, General Sani Abacha has explained the circumstances that lead to his death. Addressing newsmen recently, Professor Wali says Abacha’s health was in good condition before his death, adding that contrary to the believe that the ex-military ruler ate poisoned apple served by some ladies, he didn’t meet any woman when he arrived the villa.
His words, ”Abacha was generally healthy though he had some health issues. He was treated and responded very well. He didn’t have any heart-related diseases at that time”, Wali said.
Speaking specifically of June 7, 1998, the day Abacha died, Professor Wali said, ”around 6 am I had a phone call from his security officers, and they said, “please come, come to the villa, come urgently!” Before I even could get ready, they came and picked me. I had no idea what it all was about”.
”I arrived then I saw chief security there and he said “doctor come in, please, come in!” We all rushed and I just saw the president. There was another doctor who came earlier, resuscitating him.
“Abacha was in the sitting room. He was on the couch. He was in his normal work clothes. I didn’t panic. I’ve seen a lot of serious problems before in my practice, but to affect him was very tough, definitely.
“I joined and we did as much as we could to resuscitate him. But I realised that he was dead because he was firming. We just continued resuscitation and even injected some things, but it didn’t work”. ”I said, sorry – there’s nothing we can do. Immediately the security officer took over, and he invited all the service chiefs to come to Abuja. Most of them were based in Lagos”.
Professor Wali said he was determined that there should be an autopsy to find out what caused the death. After much deliberating, the family declined, preferring the quick burial in line with Islamic tradition.
”I still tried to take some samples of blood and urine and hair and things like that, just thinking for the future chemical tests,” Professor Wali said.
”It’s very difficult to say [whether he died of natural causes]. The blood test we did, has shown some raised cardiac enzymes [proteins that are released into the blood by dying heart muscles].That’s why we thought maybe it was cardiac attack”.
Addressing rumours that Abacha died after he had been poisoned, or spent a night entertaining young ladies, Professor Wali said, ”when I entered [Abacha’s premises], there were no ladies. It might be true but I did not see them. Concerning the poison, as I said no post-mortem has been done, so I couldn’t assure whether he was poisoned or it was a heart attack”.
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