Nigerian comic Atunyota Alleluya Akpobome, popularly generally known as Ali Baba, has shared a chilling account of a detailed encounter with Nigeria’s former army chief, General Sani Abacha.
Describing it as a “near-death expertise,” Ali Baba revealed the tense trade throughout an look on the Leadership Podcast.
The 59-year-old comic recalled a specific occasion he was invited to host in Abuja throughout Abacha’s regime.
At the time, Ali Baba was answerable for introducing an Akwa Ibom cultural group scheduled to carry out.
“The first shut encounter I had with demise was with Sani Abacha,” the comic recounted. “When Abacha was president; Ernest Shonekan had been eliminated, so I went to do an occasion in Abuja, and it was time for the Akwa Ibom cultural group to carry out. At the time, Abacha was carrying a kind of darkish Rayban sun shades that could possibly be folded.”
In a daring and surprising transfer, Ali Baba addressed Abacha immediately, asking him to take away his sun shades.
“So then they began dancing, I finished them and confronted Abacha, saying, ‘Your Excellency, sir, it’s nearly 10; why are you carrying darkish shades? Don’t you need to see their efficiency? Remove this shade nah,’” he mentioned.
To his shock, Abacha complied, however the rigidity within the room escalated as Ali Baba seen operatives from the State Security Service (SSS), also called the Department of State Services (DSS), shifting backstage.
“He [Abacha] then eliminated the glasses and was speaking to his aide. As quickly as they began, I noticed the DSS officers going backstage to attend for God is aware of who,” Ali Baba defined, recalling the rising nervousness he felt.
In a second of concern, Ali Baba admitted that he selected to take a seat beside the iron-fisted president fairly than retreat to the security of the backstage.
“I went down the stage to the place Abacha was and sat on the bottom subsequent to him. He made jokes about me and requested why I refused to go backstage.
I mentioned, ‘Don’t fear, sir, they’ll come and arrest me right here,’” he added, capturing the absurd rigidity of the second.
Sani Abacha dominated Nigeria with an iron fist from 1993 till his demise in 1998, following a coup that ousted interim President Ernest Shonekan.
His regime was notorious for human rights abuses, with quite a few opposition figures imprisoned, tortured, or killed throughout his management.
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