Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele has shared a gripping account of how he narrowly escaped arrest—and possibly worse—by operatives of the late military dictator, General Sani Abacha. According to him, the dramatic escape was orchestrated by his wife, Yemisi, who smuggled him out of Abuja in an ambulance from Garki General Hospital, where she worked as a registered pharmacist.

 

Bamidele’s revelation came as part of activities commemorating National Democracy Day, marking the aftermath of the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election won by the late Chief MKO Abiola.

 

Recounting the events, Bamidele said he had been in a Wuse II courtroom in the Federal Capital Territory, representing 11 expelled student union leaders from the University of Abuja, when a registrar informed him that security agents had stormed his law office, searching for arms and ammunition.

 

“There were no mobile phones then, so we relied on landlines. One of the lawyers in my office contacted my wife at her hospital office to alert her about the raid,” Bamidele recalled.

 

Quick to act, Yemisi reached out to a court assistant registrar who discreetly informed Bamidele in the courtroom. With the help of a fellow lawyer, Bamidele managed to slip away to a nearby law office and eventually contacted his wife. She arrived shortly after with an ambulance, and together they launched a covert escape operation.

 

The ambulance took him to a safe location, where a friend picked him up for a harrowing three-day journey by road. “We couldn’t use the airport—it was under heavy surveillance. I couldn’t return to Lagos either, because the regime was simultaneously raiding the offices of Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti and Chief Femi Falana,” he said.

 

Bamidele described a secret NADECO escape route that led from Lagos to Badagry and onward to Cotonou, using canoes at night to avoid detection. From Ghana, he arranged a flight to the United States, where he was later granted political asylum.

 

“In the U.S., I found a platform to support other comrades fleeing the regime, and we continued our resistance from exile,” Bamidele said, reflecting on what he called a dangerous but pivotal chapter in Nigeria’s fight for democracy.