Apparently spurred by the revelation coming from a Lagos State High Court, through Major Hamza al-Mustapha, over circumstances surrounding the death of their brother, two siblings of the late Chief M. K. O. Abiola have gone public. Thee men are half-brothers of the winner of the June 12, 1993 Nigerian presidential election.
Last August, Murtala and Tunde Abiola, spoke with Idowu Adelusi of Lagos’ Sunday Tribune. The personal physician to the late Abiola, Dr. Ore Falomo, also reacted to some of the issues raised by the duo.
Excerpts
Thirteen years after the death of Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola, the family has kept mute over the alleged murder of the business mogul. Why?
Let me first tell you that I am Tunde Abiola, a younger brother to the late Bashorun M.K.O Abiola l am in the ninth position in the family because our father had nine children. M.K.O was the first, while l am the last.
It is true that we siblings of M.K.O. had kept quiet for long and we have our reasons for taking that position. The revelations by al-Mustapha, the former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late General Sani Abacha, have necessitated why siblings of MKO now decided to speak out.
My own concern is the way they slaughtered my brother. I used the word slaughter because l am the one who bathed his remains (before burial). They broke his skull, removed a portion of his brain. They opened his chest, removed his heart, and they cut his stomach up to his private part, then sewed it half way.
They left the skull and the chest like that. There is a certain cloth called aramin, used to bury Muslims. Members Markas in Agege Lagos could not use the cloth to bury him because of blood. The bleeding was so much. I believe that the government of General Abdulsalami Abubakar murdered M.K.O. for a purpose.
They made sure he was totally dead. We waited after his death for five days before we could catch a glimpse of the corpse of our late brother.
I was worried on why M.K.O. was still bleeding five days after he was killed. I believe M.K.O. did not die immediately, they slaughtered him. Abdulsalami Abubakar said it was M.K.O’s family who permitted him to perform autopsy on him. It’s not true. We did not permit him because we are Muslims; we believe in ‘God gives and God takes.’
But now that it is open to the world that they killed M.K.O., my brother died in the hands of Abdulsalami Abubakar and the Abiola family will not take it lightly with them. We have been suffering for the past 17 years; the four years he was in detention plus the 13 years after his death. We have only been managing our resources. M.K.O’s siblings did not collect any money from the government in whatever form.
Why do you think the government removed those organs you mentioned from M.K.O?
I don’t know. We want the world to ask Abdulsalami Abubakar what he did with those internal organs. We want the world to know that the autopsy was done without M.K.O’s family’s consent.
Al-Mustapha has declared that some Yoruba leaders betrayed MKO. Do you agree with what he had said?
We knew that from the beginning before he died. He told the family that some people had disappointed him. After M.K.O. voted, he went immediately to the house of a Yoruba leader (names witheld), M.K.O. met him sleeping. MKO then asked hm; “Why are you sleeping at this time? That means you did not vote for me. I knew it would happen like that because my mind told me that you people would not back me.” He left there to another leader’s (names witheld) house and met him sleeping also.
Therefore, my family was never surprised at what al-Mustapha has been saying because we knew before now, except that we decided to keep quiet. Thirteen years after, the Federal Government has refused to accord recognition to M.K.O. as a part of Nigeria’s present democracy. In advanced countries, martyrs of democracy are immortalised and celebrated yearly. But in Nigeria, M.K.O. is still being persecuted by those who, today, are beneficiaries of what he fought and died for. For instance, Olusegun Obasanjo said if one king didn’t die, another would not be enthroned. That sentence scared our family. Throughout his eight years as president of this country, Obasanjo did not visit our house. Even the money which the Federal Government is owing M.K.O. has not been paid till date.
Contrary to that, your family was said to have collected certain amount of money from the Federal Government. What is the money for?
No, M.K.O’s family has not collected money from the Federal Government and l am challenging Abdulsalami (Abubakar) or al-Mustapha to publish the names of those who collected the money.
We are surprised at the way M.K.O. died, but as a Muslim family, we believe that God gives, God takes. It is very sad to hear the role played by the Yoruba leaders in the death of our brother.
Are you sure M.K.O’s children or wives have not received any money?
I cannot say. One thing l am sure of is that no sibling of M.K.O. received money from the government.
Nothing was removed from MKO – His doctor
Nobody bathed Abiola. I was the one who brought his corpse in the morning. Nobody washed anything. He was then laid in his room. We were all there. It was a body that had been embalmed. They had carried out a post-mortem; the body was already sutured. It was from there that his body was taken to the grave.
Go and ask Kola who is the first born. Bodyguards were provided so as to be able to wade through the crowd that was present. I was the one who brought it in an American Embassy car. Buba Marwa was the governor and he sealed the road for me to be able to pass through freely.
Let them shut up! They should not tarnish the memory of Abiola. We were guarded because of the crowd and until we took the coffin upstairs. Kola saw the corpse and started crying. We didn’t allow him to come for the post-mortem. He cried, but later consoled himself. The driver asked me if the crowd would allow us drive through. I told him that they would allow us as long as they knew that it was Abiola’s body.
Whoever a post-mortem is carried out on would have his body lacerated. There will be blood, but it will be from the post-mortem. What would interest people was if there was blood when the body was brought from Abuja.
There was the mark of the electric shock on his chest which was done to help his heart come back to its original position.