Dr. Oluranti Afowowe, author of Destiny Anchored on Faith: The Story of Oladipo Diya has raised fresh questions over the sudden deaths of Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola and General Sani Abacha, insisting that neither man showed signs of illness before they died.
Speaking on the Edmund Obilo Podcast, Dr. Afowowe said the striking similarity in the circumstances of their deaths suggested that both incidents went beyond natural causes.
“Abiola took his own tea and before you know what, he was dead and the same thing happened to Abacha,” Afowowe disclosed.
According to him, Abiola, widely believed to have won the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election died suddenly on July 7, 1998, shortly after drinking tea during a meeting with a U.S. delegation in Abuja. Just weeks earlier, on June 8, 1998, Abacha himself had collapsed and died unexpectedly after reportedly consuming a meal and drink at the Presidential Villa.
Afowowe stressed that the uncanny similarities between the two deaths fueled widespread suspicions at the time and continue to raise questions about Nigeria’s political history. “They were not sick before. It happened suddenly, almost in the same manner, and the consequences reshaped Nigeria,” he explained.
The author noted that these events formed part of the turbulent environment in which General Oladipo Diya lived and survived. His book, he said, explores these historical mysteries alongside Diya’s own story of survival and faith.
“The deaths of Abacha and Abiola cannot be separated from Nigeria’s destiny. They changed the course of our democracy,” Afowowe added.
