DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A look at this day in CNN's history.</s>ANNOUNCER: Bringing you the world for 20 years, this is CNN.</s>JOIE CHEN, CNN ANCHOR: Already stunned by the death of its military dictator last month, Nigeria faces a new shock and more turmoil as its more prominent political prisoner dies. Moshood Abiola took ill as he was meeting with a U.S. delegation pressing for his release. CNN's Bob Coen is in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.</s>BOB COEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nigerians are in a state of shock following the announcement that the country's most famous political prisoner, Chief Moshood Abiola, died on Tuesday afternoon. Chief Abiola, who had been held in detention for the last four years by the Nigerian military, suffered an apparent heart attack during a meeting with a high-powered U.S. State Department delegation led by U.S. Undersecretary Thomas Pickering. The U.S. delegation was in Nigeria to bring pressure on the military to implement democratic reforms and to release political prisoners, including Abiola. His sudden death comes almost exactly one month after the unexpected death of the man who imprisoned him, Nigerian military strongman, General Sani Abacha, who died on June 8. The Nigerian authorities have ordered an immediate autopsy in the presence of Chief Abiola's personal doctor in what they hope will prove that there was no foul play.
CNN 20: Chief Moshood Abiola Dies, July 7, 1998