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Obasanjo Reveals How Ex-US President Jimmy Carter Saved His Life

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Obasanjo Reveals How Ex-US President Jimmy Carter Saved His Life

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has disclosed how Ted Turner, the founder of CNN and former US President Jimmy Carter, tried to have him out from prison under the military regime of General Sani Abacha.

APC attacks Obasanjo over criticism of Tinubu’s reforms

Prior to this, Obasanjo claimed that his 1995 arrest resulted from his refusal to keep quiet about important domestic and global issues.

Under Abacha’s rule, Obasanjo claims that his candor turned into a liability. At a conversation with fifteen up-and-coming African leaders at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, he related this story.

“President Carter was one of my foreign friends who stuck their necks out to save my life and to seek my release from prison. On President Carter’s visit to Nigeria, he got Abacha to agree to take me from detention to house arrest on my farm. But that did not last for too long,” Obasanjo was quoted as saying by Daily Trust.

He continued: “Many other friends and leaders intervened but President Carter was the only non-African leader, according to my information, that paid a visit to Abacha solely to plead for my release.

“I would remain ever grateful to all who worked for my release from Abacha’s gulag. Abacha ensured that I would not be released. Within a week of his death though, I was released by his successor, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who also facilitated my going round Africa and the rest of the world to thank all those who worked for my release.”

He said Carter later informed him of the efforts of Ted Turner, an American entrepreneur and founder of the Cable News Network (CNN), and others to secure his release.

“But the most surprising thing Carter said to me was, ‘Please see Ted Turner and thank him for his generosity. He came to me and asked me to get his friend, Obasanjo, released from prison. ‘I will take care of him and his family here or wherever he chooses to live’.

“I was touched and moved to tears. I immediately went to Ted who expressed to me the same sentiment that President Carter expressed,” he said.

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