/ 27 July 2001

ABUBAKAR ‘TOOK OVER POWER TO GET MONEY’

A NIGERIAN lawmaker has called for the arrest over corruption claims of former military ruler General Abdulsalami Abubakar, a press report said on Wednesday. Senator Kanti Bello from the northern state of Katsina said Abubakar, who ran Nigeria for 11 months before handing over power to the civilian government of President Olusegun Obasanjo in May 1998, was corrupt. He said the retired general should be made to account for what he said was the looting of the national treasury under his regime. Last week, former intelligence chief Ibrahim Sabo told a human rights hearing that Abubakar’s regime was massively corrupt. Sabo said “going by the records”, Abubakar “took over power to get money.” -AFP