TUESDAY, 5.00PM:
NIGERIA, which has just replaced planned presidential elections with a referendum, has been criticised for the move by the United Kingdom and the United States.
The elections for a civilian president were cancelled after all five authorised political parties nominated military ruler General Sani Abacha as their candidate.
Now Nigerian will have two choices on August 1: whether they want Abacha, or not.
British Foreign Office Minister Tony Lloyd said: “It is difficult to see how an election in which only a single candidate is put forward by all five registered, and government-sponsored, parties, can be judged free, fair and inclusive.”
Nigeria has been threatened by the international community with sanctions if a civilian government does not take over this year.
The US accuses the Nigerian government of manipulating the transition to democracy to maintain Abacha’s grip on power.
“Thus far, we believe this transition that he promised in June 1994 is seriously and fatally flawed,” said State Department spokesman James Rubin. “We urge General Abacha to live up to his promise to his fellow Nigerians and the entire world and to refuse the nomination so that a genuine transition to civilian democratic rule may take place in the August elections.” MONDAY, 5.00PM:
NIGERIA’s military regime on Monday announced the release of 10 military personnel and six civilians held in connection with a claimed 1997 coup plot against the regime of General Sani Abacha.
Pan African News Agency reports that defence headquarters in the capital Lagos directed the freed suspects, including three colonels, one group captain, two majors and three corporals, to report at their respective command units.
Among them is a former military administrator of the western state of Ogun, Colonel Daniel Akintonde. The released soldiers are among some 60 military personnel and civilians investigated for their alleged involvement in the failed coup, which government said had been designed to derail an ongoing transition to democracy programme.
The defence headquarters also set April 28 as judgment day for the 26 principal suspects still being held for the alleged plot, being tried in the central city of Jos by a special military tribunal.
Those awaiting the verdict include Abacha’s former deputy, Lieutenant General Oladipo Diya and two former ministers of the military regime, Major-General Tajudeen Olanrewaju and Major-General Abdulkarim Adisa.
A treason verdict carries the maximum death sentence in Nigeria, which has seen about a dozen failed or successful coups in its 38 years of independence.
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