Given its antecedent in the international politics till date, the US might not absolve itself from the circumstances that led to the mysterious death of the acclaimed winner of the Nigerian fairest and freest June 12, 1993 Presidential election, Late Chief MKO Abiola.
A columnist, Festus Adedayo made this assertion in a published write-up titled: “General Abubakar: Was MKO’s death really natural?”
Despite the recent claim by a former Head of State, Gen. Abubakar Abdul Salam that Abiola was indisposed during the US delegation’s visit and Susan Rice’s (delegation Head) memoir – attempt to absolve the US from the death, Adedayo argued that “discarding the theory that the June 12 election winner could have been poisoned would be naïve”.
Research, he insisted has shown that there are ten deadly poisons known to mankind and their powers vary.
These, Adedayo revealed include: “arsenic, hemlock, dimethylmercury, polonium 210, mercury, tetrodotoxin, cyanide, Atropa belladonna, and aconitine, explaining that while arsenic is renowned for being the most potent of the lot, harvesting in its sack the hugest cadavers in its fury, it has been in existence from ancient times.
The poison he wrote “is preferred in targeted killings because it presents without colour, smell, or taste. Upon its administration, it manifests in vomiting, severe abdominal cramps, and ultimately, as the Yoruba will say, the hawker of eko (cornmeal porridge) in heaven stridently calls for patronage of her wares. While the list of its preys is endless, Napoleon Bonaparte, George III of England, and Simon Bolivar are its famous victims.
“Hemlock as a poison was popularised in tales of the Greek philosopher Socrates’ execution. It has two variants; poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) and water hemlock (Cicuta species and Oenanthe crocata L). When administered, it presents with such numbing paralysis that, though the individual’s mind is continuously working, their physical movements grind to a halt by stealth and gradually lead to death. It is the same for dimethylmercury, known to be an extremely poisonous material known also to be a slow killer. Its victim is only aware of a problem when they have begun to sing the nunc dimittis. Even dosages as low as 0.1ml are renowned to be very lethal. This was the case in 1996 when a Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, Chemistry teacher had a drop of it trickle down her gloved hand. It went through the glove’s latex and an autopsy on her body ten months later indicated that the dimethylmercury led to her death”’ Adedayo revealed in the piece.
While noting that mercury could be sprayed in the air for victims to sniff to their death, tetrodotoxin is an uncommon poison found inside marine animals like Pufferfish and Octopus, adding that Atropa belladonna poison is also found in plants.
For proof of evidence, Adedayo sent a caution that his assertion is not to conclude that the tea offered Late Abiola by Rice contained the poison that killed him, writing that he could have died a natural death.
Still, Adedayo alluded: “The strongest motive for anyone to murder Abiola and Abacha however lies in that, taking them out would ensure a tabular rasa political equation for the Nigerian polity, with both Nigerian and American political and governmental elites put in the stead to reap bountiful dividends therefrom. Abiola’s trial by ordeal in detention in the hands of Abacha could as well have been the gradual poison that killed him. Indeed, knowing how maniacal Abacha was, the general could have caused any of the above poisons to be administered on him, in the hope that his expiration would come gradually. While America will look too sophisticated to allow its topmost officials to be amateurishly present at a proposed murder scene, especially with a not too salutary global renown in targeted killings, sometimes, confidence has been held to lead to slips and errors.
“Suspicions of Nigerian and international complicity in MKO’s death were further reinforced by the not too dissimilar pattern of his and Abacha’s expiration. While Abacha gradually bloated in his latter days on earth, with a noticeable podgy face seen in his far-between TV appearances, his corpse allegedly distended at burial point. Abubakar, while attempting to disclaim the government’s hand in his death, would seem to be saying that the sudden sickness that took Abiola’s life was the result of heart disease. But heart diseases don’t come suddenly. The fact that a government doctor allegedly attached to treat him in detention didn’t identify hitherto that his heart was tensioned will show suspected lax or nil medical attention from the government for him”.
Writing on some policy and institutional lapses, Adedayo said unlike in the west, Nigeria does not have “shamus agencies and organisations whose operations are independent of the state and who help to puncture these bloody balloons of knotty state and individual murders”, noting that such efforts, were aided by a police organisation that knew its onions, led to the unraveling of the killing in May last year of prominent Brazilian conservationist, Joao Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife, Maria do Espirito Santo da, who were ambushed while riding on a bicycle in Para state, near the city of Maraba.
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