An ex military head of state Yakubu Gowon has explained how he stopped another military leader Sani Abacha from executing Olusegun Obasanjo. Gowon led the country from 1966 to 1975 and he was in power during the civil war of 1967 to 1970.
Abacha took over power from a interim government Ernest Shonekan and later arrested Obasanjo on the ground that he was planning to overthrow the government. Obasanjo himself was a military head of state after the assassination of Murtala Mohammed.
Obasanjo was in prison when Yakubu Gowon wrote a letter to plead on behalf of the Owu man. According to a comment Gowon made in Plateau State yesterday, the letter was sent through his wife in the middle of the night.
“I wrote a letter to Abacha; I pleaded with him that God made him a leader to do good and not evil. I sent my wife with the letter in the middle of the night to Abacha in Abuja; I pleaded with him that such a thing should not happen.
“I’m glad that soon after that, things changed, and not only that Obasanjo left prison, he became our president in 1999.
“This is something that only prayers and sincerity can do; I’m happy that today myself and Obasanjo are here to celebrate the unity of Plateau State,” Gowon explained in the presence of Obasanjo himself at a carol organized by the Plateau State Government in Jos.
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