Obasanjo was among the leaders that the regime of General Sani Abacha tossed into jail.

After Abacha died suddenly in 1998, Abdulsalami took over as president and released some detainees, consisting of Obasanjo.

In an interview with TRUST TV, the elder statesman how Obasanjo and others were fixed up to make them recover.

“We released Obasanjo and other prisoners and pardoned them. When Obasanjo was launched he came to see me, saying he was going to take the government to court. “Why are you going to do that?” He said his organization was crumbled by the military, his human rights have actually been broken, that he did not commit any coup and so on etc. I stated “Sir, please let bygone be bygone, thank God you are alive today, forget about these things. Some of the problems you discussed, within my power I will look into that, so we left it at that”.

Asked if he rehabilitated Obasanjo after jail, Abdulsalami said, “Like I had all other detainees! What do you indicate by I had to restore him?

“Of course not just him, all individuals that were sent to prison in one way or the other, we tried to rehabilitate them; to help them in one way or the other.”