Ace Nigerian comedian and actor, Ali Baba has recounted his encounter with the late former military leader, Gen Sani Abacha.

He explained on the Leadership Podcast with Stephen Akintayo,  that the encounter was a “near-death experience.”

He disclosed that the incident happened during Abacha’s presidency at an event in Abuja where he was tasked with introducing the Akwa Ibom cultural group.

He said, “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”.

Ali Baba said he boldly asked Abacha to remove his sun glasses.

He said, “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 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 added.

Fearing for his safety, he said he decided to sit next to Abacha instead of going backstage, where the operatives awaited.

“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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