Nigeria’s Former First Lady Slain on Street in Lagos

A gang of young men shot and killed the wife of former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Friday after she refused to surrender her car, witnesses said.

Linda Obasanjo, 45, was shot through her car window by the thieves, who then dragged her body from the car and sped away, the witnesses said. She was killed at about noon in a commercial district of Lagos.

The assailants abandoned the Peugot sedan about three miles away.

Police described the slaying as premeditated and suggested the robbers had been looking for Mrs. Obasanjo. They refused to elaborate but said a special investigation is under way.

Her husband, a retired army general who was head of state from 1976-1979, was at his farm in Abeokuta in southeastern Ogun State at the time of the shooting.

As commander of the 3rd Marine Commando Division, Obasanjo led the government’s main strike force during the 1967-1970 Biafra war. He served as supreme military commander before becoming president when Murtala Muhammed was assassinated in 1976.

Obasanjo is a member of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group, which is charged with promoting negotiations between the South African government and the black majority.