Daring Escape: How My Wife Rescued Me From Abacha’s Men, Says Senator Bamidele

F.C.T,Abuja-The Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, has revealed the dramatic story of how his wife, Yemisi Bamidele, orchestrated his escape from the clutches of General Sani Abacha’s security operatives. Working as a pharmacist at Garki General Hospital, Mrs. Bamidele smuggled her husband out of Abuja in an ambulance, ultimately leading to his political asylum in the United States.

Senator Bamidele shared his harrowing experience yesterday in Abuja, as activists commemorated National Democracy Day, recalling the annulment of the June 12 presidential election won by the late Moshood Abiola.

He recounted being in a court session in Wuse II, defending 11 student union leaders expelled by the University of Abuja, when he received alarming news: security operatives had raided his law office, purportedly searching for arms and weapons.

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“There was no GSM then. We only relied on landlines,” Bamidele explained. “One of the lawyers in my office had called my wife from the NUJ Secretariat because they had my wife’s office line at Garki General Hospital… He called my wife’s office line just to let me know that when he went to buy something around my office, he saw that security officers had taken over the entire place.”

Immediately informed, Bamidele instructed a colleague to take over his court case. His wife, quick-thinking and resourceful, then arranged for his miraculous escape. She swiftly contacted an assistant registrar she knew in the court, asking her to discreetly inform Bamidele of the invasion.

“My case had not been called because there were other senior lawyers in court whose matters would be mentioned before coming to junior counsel. So, the assistant registrar came to whisper what had happened in my law office to me. I managed to inform one of my colleagues to stand by and represent me,” he said.

Bamidele then sought refuge in a colleague’s law office until he could reach his wife via her office landline. “My wife brought an ambulance from Garki General Hospital to convey me to another location.

It was the ambulance we used to go to a place where a friend could convey me in his car. We then drove out for almost three days before we got to a safer place.” His narrow escape, he stated, was crucial due to the persistent threat to his and his family’s lives.