OWN CORRESPONDENT, Abuja | Tuesday 9.00pm.
NIGERIA’S second major political party hoping to secure power in the democratic elections scheduled for early next year was launched on Tuesday in the capital, Abuja.
All People’s Party, a loose coalition of politicians mainly from the Yoruba south-west, draws most of its support from the National Democratic Coalition — a party with a longstanding tradition of opposing Nigeria’s military rulers.
APP’s only competition so far is the People’s Democratic Party, consisting mainly of a group of 34 eminent politicians which emerged in March, also to oppose military rule, specifically the dictatorship of the late strongman General Sani Abacha.
Neither party has yet unveiled a clearly defined political programme, with both apparently hoping that the renown of their respective endorsers will be enough to win them popular acclaim.
The Nigerian government has meanwhile released 20 Ogoni minority activists detained since 1994 on charges of murdering four pro-government chiefs, their colleagues said on Tuesday. The youths had been facing the same murder charge for which author Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others were executed in 1995, during Abacha’s regime. They were freed by a court in the south-eastern city of Port Harcourt on Monday.