/ 14 June 1999

NIGERIAN PRESIDENT RETIRES MILITARY OFFICERS

NIGERIA’S new President Olusegun Obasanjo has retired 93 military officers who have held political appointments in the last 14 years to achieve a “clean break” with the junta-dominated past. The officers, ranking from lieutentant colonel to major general in the military, police and customs, who held political appointments between 1985 and 1999 have been retired with immediate effect. Among those retired are nine major-generals, including Patrick Aziza, who headed the 1995 military tribunal that jailed Obasanjo for an attempted coup plot.