Carrington Leaked Information Of My Arrest During Abacha Regime – Obasanjo

Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, has revealed how the late former American Ambassador in Nigeria, Amb. Walter Carrington, leaked the information of his pending arrest by late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha (retd.), in 1995 to him.
Obasanjo said he was offered political asylum in the United States of America during his trip to Copenhagen to attend the World Social Summit as Human Development Ambassador of the United Nations Development Programme.
But the former President stated that he turned down the asylum offer despite its tempting and assuring nature.
The former president said this in a condolence letter to the wife of the late Ambassador, Mrs Arese Carrington, a copy was obtained from his Special Assistant (Media), KehindeAkinyemi, in Abeokuta yesterday.
Obasanjo remarked that during his tenure as Ambassador, Carrington helped in easing the move to democratic rule in the country.
According to Obasanjo, having met Nigeria under the military rule, which had run consecutively for over a decade and bred a culture of arbitrariness, flagrant abuse of human rights and disdain for the rule of law all of which relegated our dear country, Nigeria, to the unenviable league of pariah status in the comity of nations.
“Carrington was one of the responsible, matured and respected voices to take Nigeria out of the unwholesome situation it had found itself – permanently in crisis, regularly threatened with disintegration, prolongingly devoid of democracy, and economically plundered and mismanaged”.