General Abacha Viagra

U.S. Aides Say Nigeria Leader Might Have Been Poisoned.
Some United States intelligence analysts say there is evidence that Gen. Sani Abacha, the Nigerian dictator who died unexpectedly last month, was poisoned while in the company of three prostitutes, American officials said today.
Nigeria’s military rulers reported after General Abacha’s death that he had died at his villa after a sudden heart attack. The contrary view reached by some United States Government analysts, while far from unanimous, is that he may have been killed by enemies in his notoriously corrupt and authoritarian military circle.
Reports that General Abacha might have been killed were published on Thursday on the MSNBC web site, quoting NBC News.
One United States official said flatly that the rumors were true, citing an analysis of intelligence and other reports from inside Nigeria. The analysis included reporting from American Government agencies with sources inside the Nigerian military.
But another United States official said the reports were only ”semi-credible” and not ”definitive evidence.”
And a third Administration official said today, ”There are some doctors in the employ of the C.I.A. who, when the description of the body was given to them, said it could be consistent with poisoning.” The official, who does not work for the C.I.A., said, ”We still don’t have any firm evidence.”
Such disputes between Government agencies with competing interpretations of events are common, and they can go on for years. Government officials declined to detail how they gathered and analyzed evidence that the general might have been poisoned.
Rumors and reports that the general was poisoned have been circulating in Nigeria for weeks.
”We’ve heard rumors that General Abacha was poisoned while drinking juice, carousing with young women, eating an apple, even experimenting with Viagra,” a Western official in Nigeria said.
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One account of the general’s death drawn by some Government analysts here depicts him being entertained by three prostitutes at the residence of a senior Nigerian official in the capital during the weekend of June 6-7. In the company of the second of the three women, according to this account, he met his death by poison.
In this version, based on reporting from American Government agencies with sources inside the Nigerian military, it is unclear what the poison was or how it was administered. But it is thought that the source of the poison might be an officer or a clique of officers in the Nigerian military regime who believed that the general’s hold on power was destroying what little good name the army had left.
If the analysts’ conclusion is correct, it raises questions about the sudden death on Tuesday of Moshood K. O. Abiola, the long-imprisoned leader of Nigeria’s repressed political opposition, who collapsed while meeting senior State Department officials in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.
The Nigerian military has also attributed Mr. Abiola’s death to a heart attack, but his family and some of his supporters say they suspect homicide. An independent autopsy is under way in Nigeria.
By contrast, General Abacha was buried within hours of his death, Western officials in Nigeria said.
General Abacha, who was 54, seized power in 1993. But he had been instrumental in the military governments that have ruled Nigeria since 1983. He had long promised that there would be a transition to a civilian government, but this spring he forced the nation’s five legal political parties to nominate him as the sole presidential candidate.
Immediately after his death, the political opposition in Nigeria called on the military to permit Mr. Abiola, who by all independent accounts won a 1993 presidential election nullified by the military, to be freed from prison and to lead a civilian government. The Government indicated last week that it would release all its political prisoners, including Mr. Abiola, who had agreed to relinquish his claim to the presidency.
General Abacha’s successor, Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, also has promised to return the country to civilian rule. It remains unclear if, or how, the 27-member Provisional Ruling Council, which is the political machine behind the military Government, will permit democratic elections.
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