Former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar has shared a chilling account of how he hid his wife and daughter inside a wardrobe to protect them during an assassination attempt.
Speaking on the podcast “Untold Stories With Adesuwa”, Atiku recounted how he strategically misled the armed attackers to keep his family safe.
“I got up and said, ‘But I’m coming to open the door for you why would you be shooting?'” Atiku recalled. “They said, ‘Open,’ so I opened.
They said, ‘Okay, take us to your room.’ I refused to take them to my room because in my room, I put my wife and my daughter inside the wardrobe and locked them. So I went to my wife’s room and said, ‘This is my room.'”
The attackers unaware of his deception followed him into his wife’s room. It was at that moment that gunfire erupted outside distracting them from their mission.
“It was when I was in my wife’s room that they heard the Gunshots and they abandoned me and started running,” he said.
Atiku’s revelation provides insight into the life-threatening dangers he faced during Nigeria’s military era. His quick thinking not only saved his own life but also ensured the safety of his wife and daughter during the terrifying ordeal.
Despite the threats to his life, Atiku remained a key political figure later serving as Vice President from 1999 to 2007.
His story, as shared on “Untold Stories With Adesuwa”, highlights the personal risks he endured in the fight for democracy and the resilience that has defined his political career.