Former President Olusegun Obasanjo said he would have been killed during the military coup d’etat led by Lieutenant Colonel Buka Dimka on February 13, 1976.
Obasanjo disclosed this on Sunday in Igbotako in Okitipupa Local Government Area of Ondo State during the celebration of 80th birthday of General Olu Bajowa (Rtd).
The ex-President said it was in the plan of the coup plotters to kill him alongside the then Head of States, Murtala Mohammed, but his saving grace was Bajowa who invited to his son’s christening.
“I want to say something about Olu either he knew it or he didn’t know. When Dimka coup came, if Olu had not been what and what he is, I would have gone with the coup.
“Let me tell you the story. Olu is very respectful. He is very conscious of our culture. He had a child, a boy, and wanted to name the child after me. He had to call me early in the morning, that morning that Dimka struck.
“And because Olu said he was coming, I had to wait a little bit. I waited beyond the time I would have gone out. Olu then came, he made the request and I granted the request.
“So, I was a little bit late in going on the route that I normally take to work. And Col. Raymond Matthew Dumuje (retd) went ahead of me and they thought it was me and they shot his car. They shot his car, Murtala was shot. Indirectly, that is how Olu Bajowa saved my life,” he narrated.
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