“Tinubu Warned My Mum About the Assassination Plot”: Kudirat Abiola’s Son Speaks

By Online Reporter

New details have emerged regarding the assassination of Kudirat Abiola, who was killed while fighting to restore the presidential mandate of her husband, Chief MKO Abiola.

On June 4, 1996, Alhaja Kudirat Abiola was shot dead near the 7-Up Bus Stop in Ikeja, Lagos. The attack was carried out by armed men allegedly led by Sergeant Rogers (Barnabas Jabila) on orders from General Sani Abacha’s military government

She was brutally murdered en route to a political engagement, where she planned to continue her active campaign for the release of her junta-detained husband.

In a new documentary by US-based veteran journalist Ose Oyamendan, Abiola’s son, Abdulmumini, revealed that his mother’s death might have been avoided. He noted that she had ignored warnings from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that her life was in danger and disregarded his advice to flee the country immediately.

In the documentary marking Nigeria’s 66th independence anniversary, Abdulmumini recalled that after his father was arrested by the Abacha junta, his mother, Kudirat, teamed up with President Tinubu to strategize ways to secure his release.

“I remember vividly Asiwaju (Tinubu) and my mum going back and forth on the strategies on how to get Abiola out of prison. I remember vividly the last time he visited my mum and told her of an impending plot to assassinate the both of them, and that he was already planning his way out of the country; that he was going to go on exile and continue the fight from the United States.

“My mum was saying that he should go but that she could not leave her husband in prison. So she stayed back, and about a month or two later, she was assassinated on the streets of Lagos.

“What I’m saying in essence is that he was there, and after my mum was assassinated, he continued the struggle from overseas.

“He was also instrumental in doing Radio Kudirat. And when we had democracy, he came back to become governor.

“So, it is like full circle. He was there in the beginning, and now he is the President, and the fact that he is going to come (for the screening of the documentary) is a way of him honouring how important that part of our history is.”