Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, has shared a gripping account of how he was smuggled out of Abuja in an ambulance to escape military agents during the Abacha regime.
Bamidele revealed that his wife, Yemisi Bamidele, then a pharmacist at Garki General Hospital, orchestrated his escape after security operatives raided his law office in Abuja. His disclosure came on Wednesday in Abuja during the 2025 National Democracy Day event, held in honour of the annulled June 12, 1993, presidential election won by the late Moshood Abiola.
The senator recalled that he was in court at Wuse II defending 11 expelled student union leaders from the University of Abuja when his wife received a tip-off that his office had been invaded by security agents, allegedly searching for arms.
“There was no GSM then. We relied on landlines,” Bamidele said. “A lawyer in my office contacted my wife via her office line at Garki General Hospital to alert her that security officers had taken over our office.”
Bamidele said his wife quickly reached out to a court registrar to inform him of the danger. After being quietly alerted in court, he handed over the case to a colleague and slipped away.
He continued: “I crossed over to a colleague’s law office and waited until I could reach my wife. She brought an ambulance from Garki General Hospital, and I was driven away in it. We then met up with a friend who conveyed me in his car. We drove for almost three days before reaching safety.”
The harrowing experience, he said, led to his political asylum in the United States. Bamidele’s testimony highlights the risks activists faced during the military era and serves as a reminder of the sacrifices made in Nigeria’s struggle for democracy.
