Sani Abacha

Abacha was born in the city of Kano in northern Nigeria on 20 September 1943 to Kanuri parents, and studied in Kano's schools before joining the Nigerian Military Training College in Kaduna in 1962 and training in the United Kingdom. ^{1 2} He rose to the army's senior ranks, holding posts including Chief of Defence Staff and Minister of Defence under Ibrahim Babangida. ²

In November 1993 Abacha seized power in a palace coup that displaced the interim government and made him Nigeria's military head of state — the last successful coup in Nigerian military history. ² His rule was marked by the suppression of opponents, political assassinations and the execution of the environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995, by his country's international isolation, and by allegations that he looted between two and five billion dollars, hidden in foreign accounts and partly recovered since. ²

The English article's text calls Abacha "a professed Muslim", citing a scholarly chapter of 2005, and the Arabic article's infobox gives his religion as Islam; no source used names a school for him, so his faith value is left unclassified (unknown) in his record. ^{2 1} Abacha died suddenly at the presidential residence in Abuja on 8 June 1998 and was buried the same day in Kano according to Muslim tradition and without an autopsy; General Abdulsalami Abubakar succeeded him and led the return to civilian rule. ^{2 3}

• The defined source entities cited above, recorded in data/source/.