A Nigerian rights panel has linked former military ruler General Ibrahim Babangida and two of his security chiefs to the murder of a journalist 16 years ago, a press report said on Monday.
Dele Giwa was killed by a parcel bomb in October 1986 and his killers were never found. The Comet newspaper said the panel, set up by Obasanjo to probe 33 years of rights abuses, submitted its final report to the president in late May.
It claimed to have found evidence linking Babangida, who ruled from 1985 to 1993, and the security chiefs to the murder, the paper said.
”On General Ibrahim Babaginda, we are of the view that there is evidence to suggest that he and the two security chiefs … are accountable for the death of Dele Giwa,” the panel was quoted as saying in the report submitted to Obasanjo late last month.
The panel recommended the murder investigation be reopened. ”We recommend that this case be reopened for further investigation in the public interest,” the paper quoted the panel as saying.
Obasanjo promised on May 28 to ”faithfully” implement the recommendations in the panel’s report, which is still being studied by the government. Babaginda and the two security chiefs last week went to court to restrain the government from publishing the report.
That case is due to be heard in Abuja on June 18. Obasanjo set up the panel, which sat from October 2000 to last October, to investigate rights abuses from 1966, the year of the first military coup in Nigeria, to 1999 when civilian rule was restored.
– Sapa-AFP