On 8 June 1998, General Abacha dies at the presidential villa in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who had been on vacation with his family at the seaside presidential villa in the Crimea, was being held hostage.

When visitors ascend the winding road that leads to Franjo Tudjman's sprawling presidential villa, they are greeted by guards who could have stepped out of a Viennese opera.

Abacha died in June 1998 while at the presidential villa in Abuja.

Late on Thursday, the Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, had invited all the negotiators to his presidential villa to provide a formal setting for the signing, should it come.

At the presidential villa, the diplomats and heads of state were prepared to lean on the rebels to agree.

So too is the presidential chaplain's Sunday service from the presidential villa in the capital, Abuja.

He did Africa in five days, stopping at the requisite game park, slave market, AIDS clinic and presidential villa.

The Government has allocated the instructors a house near the presidential villa where they conduct classes for military and civil service officials and their families.

Looters pillaged the seaside presidential villa in the city, and armed men shot into the air on the fringes of an angry rally.