
ALIBABA RECALLS NEAR – DEATH ENCOUNTER WITH ABACHA
Famous comedian Ali Baba has talked about his “near-death experience” meeting former military chief Gen. Sani Abacha.
He made this revelation on Stephen Akintayo’s Leadership Podcast.
He claims that the incident happened at an Abuja event where Ali Baba was assigned to introduce the Akwa Ibom cultural group during Abacha’s reign.
“The first close encounter I had with death was with Sani Abacha. When Abacha was President, Ernest Shonekan had been removed so I went to do an event in Abuja and it was time for the Akwa ibom cultural group to perform. At the time, Abacha was wearing one of those sunglasses that could be folded,” he recalled.
As Abacha wore folded sunglasses, Ali Baba boldly asked him to remove them, saying, “So then they started dancing I stopped them and faced Abacha, saying, ‘your excellency, sir, it’s almost 10; why are you wearing Dark shades? Don’t you want to see their performance? Remove this shade na,’” he narrated.
He said Abacha obliged but the tension escalated when he noticed DSS officers heading backstage.
“He then removed the glasses and was talking to someone and when he kept the glasses I told the troupe to continue. As soon as they started, I saw the DSS officers going backstage to wait for God knows who o.”
He claimed that out of concern for his safety, he chose to sit by Abacha rather than go backstage, where the agents were waiting.
“I went down the stage to where Abacha was and sat on the ground next to him. He made jokes of me and asked why I refused to go backstage and I said , ‘Don’t worry, sir, they can come and arrest me here,” he concluded.
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