Armed forces may court martial coup suspects

Military authorities in Nigeria said on Thursday they had set up a special panel to determine whether a group of soldiers and civilians arrested on suspicion of plotting to topple the government should face court martial. General Alexander Ogomudia, the Chief of Defence Staff, has created an all military "Special Investigation Panel" which will determine whether those arrested should face military trial on the basis of the allegations against them, his spokesman Colonel Ganiyu Adewale said. "If they are found culpable, they'll face court martial," Adewale told IRIN. He did not say when the panel was set up. The penalty for coup plotting in Nigeria is death by firing squad. More than 300 soldiers have been executed in the past for plotting failed coups. President Olusegun Obasanjo's government announced on 2 April that security agencies were investigating several Nigerian army officers and civilians in connection with "serious security breaches". The government has so far refused to call it a coup plot. But Obasanjo urged Nigerians in a special Easter Day message to "remain constantly alert and ready to thwart any attempt by unpatriotic elements to breach the peace and security of our nation." According to Nigerian newspaper reports on Thursday, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, the jailed former security chief to the late dictator General Sani Abacha, is among the military officers to face the special military panel. Al-Mustapha had been held in custody since 1999 for a number of crimes committed between 1993 and 1998 when Abacha was in power. They include the 1996 assassination of Kudirat Abiola, wife of Moshood Abiola - Abacha's main political opponent who won 1993 elections that were annulled by the military. Al-Mustapha is also accused of the attempted murder of Guardian newspaper publisher Alex Ibru in the same year. Soldiers have staged six successful military coups in Nigeria since independence from Britain in 1960. Obasanjo, himself a former military ruler in the late 1970s, ended 15 years of consecutive military rule in 1999 when he was elected civilian head of state. He was re-elected last year in a vote condemned by opponents as rigged.