 And welcome back to the breakfast and plus TV Africa. It's now time to talk about something remarkable that occurred today in history, June 8th, 1998. And it was about the death of former Nigerian leader, Sani Abacha. Sani Abacha's death shrouded in controversy because while some say he died of a heart attack, others say he was poisoned. But we would never know because Anatopsi was never carried out. Immediately he died. He was buried same day according to Muslim rights. But when we look at the life of Sani Abacha, it's something that we really can miss. When we look at all his contribution to the military overthrow, how he helped certain military rulers take over power in Nigeria, how he banned control of the press just basically did lots of things, especially the most remarkable was his loot. When he was head of state in the country, we know that Abacha was notorious for corruption because he would use the guise of security to get money from the central bank of Nigeria. The facts are that he would get this money mostly in cash, mostly in dollars, buy the truckloads to his house, send them to the Swiss bank accounts where he stashed them, but he never lived long enough to spend all that money. But other things that he was known for was his human rights abuses and how he, the popular killing of Kent Harua and other nine environmental activists from Ogoni, because of that incident and many other human rights abuses. The Commonwealth suspended Nigeria when that occurred in 1995. He had fought in the Nigerian army. He was the first Nigerian army officer to attend the rank of a full general without skipping any stage. His rule was characterised by fear, isolated bombings. You know, when you talk about the name Sani Abacha, many people still think about that with horror in their head. So, basically, he died on this day in history. He left 10 children behind and, yes, that's it for today in history. A couple of days ago, we spoke about the death of Kujo Rata Biola. It was also in Abacha times where, you know, that she was murdered. Some names became very popular back then in Nigeria. Hamza Al-Mustafa and Sajen Rojas and a couple of other people. You spoke already about Kent Sarawiva. There's also the General Oladipo D'Angu, whose life was hanging by a thread before this moment, actually, before this day happened. I remember I was a little, I was a boy, of course I was a boy. I was a little kid on my way back from school or after, I think it was after school, you know, that day, the when the news broke that Sani Abacha was dead. And, you know, it's a situation where, you know, a country should be thrown into mourning was instead a country thrown into celebration. It was pretty much similar to when Nigeria won the Olympics gold in football in 1996. That's how much celebration, you know, happened across Nigeria, you know, for the next couple of days. It felt like we had won the World Cup or we had won something totally huge or, you know, when Agbani Derigo won this world. So, you know, that's sadly how it is when you have leaders whose rule and whose, you know, time in that office is characterized with tyranny and dictatorship and all of that. And corruption. I mean, take a look at the amount of money that he siphoned. Millions and millions of dollars, you know, still been perpetrated. You know, remember in 2018 the government had said there was going to be a national social safety net that all the money stolen by Abacha would be distributed to poor people. They'll be getting 5,000 era every month. I don't know how that ended, but, you know, different countries, especially Switzerland, you know, paying back millions and millions of dollars that was stolen by Abacha is just remarkable. You know, the level of corruption really and how far back this has been in Nigeria's history. Alright, let's move on. Let's talk about someone who also died in 1998, but not in June, but in April, on the 23rd of April. His name is James Earl Ray and he became popular because he, you know, was found guilty for the murder of Martin Luther King in 1968. It was on this day that he was arrested after fleeing the United States to a couple of other countries. On the 4th of April in 1968, he killed Martin Luther King with, of course, a single shot fired from his Remington rifle while Martin Luther King was standing in his hotel balcony back then in Memphis, Tennessee. Witnesses saw Ray fleeing a hotel that was opposite or across the street from the hotel where Martin Luther King was standing. He fled to Atlanta and then fled to North to Canada, arrived in Toronto three days later after Martin Luther King was killed and then he'd over there for a month acquired a Canadian passport under a fake name, a Ramon George Snide. He then left Toronto in late May on a flight to England, stayed briefly also in Lisbon, Portugal from England and then returned back to London. On the 8th of June in 1968, two months after King's death, Ray was arrested at the London Heathrow Airport attempting to leave the United Kingdom for Brussels. He was trying to depart the United Kingdom for Brussels and then end up somewhere in Africa. Back then, people said it was either heading to Zimbabwe or South Africa. He confessed to the crime on the 10th of March in 1969 on his 41st birthday and after pleading guilty he was sentenced to 99 years in prison. On the 10th of June 1977, Ray and six other convicts escaped from prison but eventually were recaptured and an extra year was added to his 99 year sentence which made him of course now have to serve 100 years in jail and of course on the 23rd of April in 1998 he eventually passed on at the age of 70 but after his guilty conviction and of course after his confession, a couple of days later he actually tried to recant that confession and say that he was forced, he was convinced to plead guilty by his lawyer but there was actually a guy called Raoul who had set him up and made it seem like he was the one who fired the shot. He said he knew that the shot was going to be taken off, Martin Luther King was going to be killed but it wasn't the one who actually did it but there was no lawyers or evidence that supported that claim and he eventually was convicted of Martin Luther King's murder and was sentenced to 99 years in jail. So yes on this day James Earl Ray was captured in London's Heathrow Airport after two months of running and traveling between countries and of course after two months of the death of Martin Luther but this story still has a lot of holes in it because even though you know the US had said this was an open and short case they they caught him, he was sentenced but he said he was you know convinced to plead guilty he said he didn't do it and even the family of Martin Luther King said they believe him that he believed that Ray was innocent so we really don't know you know the facts the truth. But man but there was just there's no counterclaims and then you know his claims of some Raoul guy you know didn't hold any water because you know who's Raoul how do you you need to you need to prove that you're actually right he fired his lawyer a few times but he still was not able to prove. Yes there is also that you know a theory and of course the the king family would people not just king family would say oh you know it was done by the FBI you know it was done by the CIA you know and whoever it is that was captured it was just the the sacrificial lamp that they chose to use. Sadly those you know things may be true or may exist but still he wasn't able to prove this case otherwise and that's it his brother eventually put out a you know a documentary a book a couple of years after he was dead or so writing also about the death of Martin Luther King but well we probably would never know the truth probably much pretty much the same thing with who killed JFK or how Sani Abacha really died. We'll never know the truth of some of these things. That's all we have for you today in history 1968 and 1998 James L Ray and General Sani Abacha. Short break we're going into a conversation now with a lawyer to tell us more about the attorney general Malami and the threats the prosecute Nigerians who still are using the microblogan site Twitter. We'll talk about that after the short break. Stay with us.