How Attempted Assass!nation On Me Paved The Way For Obasanjo’s Presidency – Audu Ogbeh In Last Interview
How Attempted Assassination On Me Paved The Way For Obasanjo’s Presidency – Audu Ogbeh In Last Interview
Ogbeh recalled that a young man had even warned him to stay away from politics before the attack.
Late former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman and ex-Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Audu Ogbeh, in his final interview with Trust TV before his death, recounted how a 1998 assassination attempt on his life indirectly paved the way for former President Olusegun Obasanjo to emerge as Nigeria’s leader.
“So you struggle and sometimes find yourself going down. It reached a stage where I even had armed robbery on the farm in Makurdi; we had to pack and go back to Lagos. Also, 1998 there was an assassination attempt,” he stated in the interview.
According to Ogbeh, the attack was politically motivated.
“Local politics. I know the fellow who sent the gang. Nothing. If somebody doesn’t like the way you wear your nose, he wants to bury it. I have confronted him in the presence of his colleagues,” he said.
He said he informed security agencies but received no help.
“I wrote to the police, but they did not do anything until I wrote to Oputa Panel. I think that in the end, they retired the commissioner of police who was there,” he said.
Ogbeh recalled that a young man had even warned him to stay away from politics before the attack.
“A young guy who was deep in prayer sent me a message two months before the incident, saying I should not go back into politics or I would be killed by my own brother in my house. It didn’t make sense to me. At any rate, I didn’t want to go back into politics,” he said.
However, a chance meeting with Dr. Alex Ekwueme on a flight changed everything.
He said, “We were in government together. He said he had been looking for me. I asked why and he said I was going to direct his campaign in 1998.
“I told him that I had decided not to go back into politics and he said, ‘Don’t talk nonsense. If people like you run away, for who are you leaving the country?’ The rest of the flight wasn’t comfortable for me.”
Ogbeh eventually agreed to work with Ekwueme, but the assassination attempt soon followed. “Oh yes. They came at night, heavily armed and shouted, ‘We have come to kill you.’ I said, ‘In the name of the Lord Jesus you will fail,’” he said.
According to him, the assailants shot him and his guards.
“They shot me, left me in a pool of blood and went away. This eye nearly fell out. My domestic staff who were outside heard them chanting, ‘We don kill am.’ They came back at 6am and took me to hospital. My head was very large and I was totally unconscious,” he said.
The attack left him unable to continue Ekwueme’s campaign.
“Somehow, (they) managed me and I recovered. I had to leave the place and come to Abuja here, where Shehu Malami of Sokoto gave me a flat to stay as long as I could. I had no house,” he said.
Ogbeh said his withdrawal from Ekwueme’s campaign created the opening for Obasanjo.
He said, “Ekwueme didn’t make it because after my attack, I couldn’t carry on. Obasanjo was on the scene, and there was a decision by the northern caucus, Iyorchia Ayu, Jerry Gana, Adamu Ciroma and Solomon Lar… After June 12 and all the ‘wahala,’ if we denied the South the opportunity again, the uproar would be too much…
“You would notice that there was no northerner contesting at the Jos convention. Mainly. So Obasanjo defeated Ekwueme.”
Ogbeh would later work closely with Obasanjo, eventually becoming PDP chairman. But he admitted their relationship was not without tension.
“Well, Obasanjo was a tough guy to work with. I guess that as time went on, some of them couldn’t stand his style… I decided to give it to him and leave because anything you are doing in this world that takes your dignity away is not worth it.”
Ogbeh resigned as PDP chairman in December 2005.
Ogbeh passed away in his sleep at the age of 78, his family announced on Saturday.
