I spent Kudirat Abiola’s final 24 hours with her before assassination — Ex-JAMB Registrar Oloyede
Former Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has disclosed that he spent the final 24 hours with the late Kudirat Abiola before her assassination in 1996.
Speaking during an interview on ThisDay Live on Sunday, Oloyede explained that he has no immediate intention of writing a memoir, despite his long career in public service.
He said putting his experiences into writing would require disclosing sensitive incidents that could revive painful memories or trigger unnecessary controversy.
Reflecting on one such experience, Oloyede revealed that he was with Kudirat Abiola, the wife of the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief Moshood Abiola, during the last 24 hours before she was killed.
He said, “Recently I was at an interview and I narrated how I had to be with late Kudirat Abiola of blessed memory. How I had to be with her in her last 24 hours, 24 hours before she was killed. I was narrating the experience of our… about 24 hours we were together before the unfortunate assassination of Kudirat Abiola. May God bless her soul.”
Oloyede noted that he had been part of several significant moments in Nigeria’s history but believes certain experiences are better left untold.
He stated, “There are so many things that I know, and many people know, that it is better you do not go back to.”
Explaining why he has chosen not to write an autobiography at this time, the former JAMB registrar said some memoirs contain accounts that are difficult to substantiate or may provoke unnecessary disagreements.
He said, “Unless one wants to either create confusion in the society, create more enemies for the society or cause trouble, there are many things you come to know that you better die with.
“I believe very strongly that those who write their autobiography, I respect them because they know what to write and what not to write. But by my own nature, if I must say it, I would say everything. And some of the everything may not be good. For now, I do not intend to put up any write-up or give a narration of what happened.”
Kudirat Abiola, wife of the late Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, emerged as a prominent figure in the campaign to actualise the June 12, 1993 presidential election after her husband was detained by the military government of General Sani Abacha.
She was assassinated in Lagos on June 4, 1996, while advocating for her husband’s release and the return of democratic governance.
Her killing remains one of the defining episodes in Nigeria’s pro-democracy struggle.
