Former Kaduna Central senator Shehu Sani has revisited his imprisonment during the military regime of the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, recounting the circumstances that led to his detention at Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison and warning Nigerians on the importance of basic legal awareness.
Sani in a post on his Facebook page said he was arrested in 1995 and held at Kirikiri Prison in Lagos on allegations of treason and an attempt to overthrow the Abacha administration.
“In KiriKiri prison in 1995, detained for treason and attempt to overthrow the Abacha administration, I wrote letters to three people: Gani Fawehinmi, Femi Falana and Beko Ransome‑Kuti,” Sani said.
He described Fawehinmi and Falana as senior lawyers and rights advocates who opted to organise protests demanding the release of political detainees but did not disclose the letters he had written to them.
“The first two were senior lawyers and dogged rights activists,” he said. “They hid the letter I wrote to them, but organised a mass protest to demand my release and that of others.”
Sani said Ransome‑Kuti, a medical doctor and prominent rights campaigner, took a different approach by publicly revealing the letter during a press conference in Lagos and mobilising a nationwide demonstration calling for the release of political prisoners.
According to Sani, Ransome‑Kuti’s decision to make the letter public led to his arrest and prosecution. “Dr Beko acted differently by calling a press conference in his Lagos office and showed the world the letter I wrote to him, and he also mobilised a national protest for our release,” Sani said. “Dr Beko was immediately arrested and brought to my prison and charged for accessory to the facts of treason.”
Sani said both he and Ransome‑Kuti were subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. He said they spent four years in detention, enduring hardship, until Abacha’s death and the subsequent decision by then military Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar to free political prisoners.
Reflecting on the experience, Sani said he regretted the suffering that Ransome‑Kuti endured as a result of taking action on his behalf.
“The first two were lawyers who knew the implications of my letters, but the last one was a medical doctor. I felt bad that Dr Beko was jailed because of my letter and for years we had to suffer the torture and pains of imprisonment together,” he said.
Sani used the account to underline what he described as a broader lesson for Nigerians.
“The moral of this message is that you don’t have to be a lawyer, but you need that basic knowledge of the law to guide you in what you do, utter or post publicly. Some of the traps we fall into are the ones we carelessly designed for ourselves,” he said.