NIGERIA: Babangida in court to stop editor's murder probe

U N I T E D N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN)

NIGERIA: Babangida in court to stop editor's murder probe

LAGOS, 19 June (IRIN) - A legal battle began on Tuesday between former
Nigerian military ruler, General Ibrahim Babangida, and the government over
a probe into an unsolved 16-year-old murder of a prominent journalist Dele
Giwa, which occurred during Babangida's reign.

Nigeria's Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission (HRVIC) in its
report to President Olusegun Obasanjo last month recommended the prosecution
of Babangida and two former intelligence chiefs for the murder of Giwa by
parcel bomb in his Lagos home on 19 October 1986.

Obasanjo last month appointed a special committee to oversee the
implementation of its recommendations. HRVIC was set up by Obasanjo soon
after being elected president, to investigate human rights violations in
Nigeria since the 1960s.

Babangida subsequently filed a suit to stop Obasanjo from "considering or
accepting observations and recommendations" of the commission concerning
him. When the suit came up for hearing on Tuesday, the government filed a
counter suit seeking the authority to act on HRVIC's recommendations.
Hearing was adjourned to 8 July.

But with Babangida widely expected to contest presidential elections
scheduled for next year, the case may have ominous implications for his
political future if the government has its way.

Giwa, who was the founding editor of a leading Nigerian weekly magazine,
Newswatch, was having breakfast in his study when a parcel addressed to him
arrived. Journalist, Kayode Soyinka, who was with him at the time and
survived the blast, reported him as declaring that the package was "from the
President" before it exploded.

Suspicions of government involvement was further fueled at the time by the
fact that Giwa had three days before, been taken in by state security
officers for questioning on suspicions of gun-running and planning to
"foment a socialist revolution". On the morning he died, his wife said the
then director of military intelligence had called to ask from her the way to
the Giwas' residence.

Leading human rights lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi, who had been seeking the
prosecution of Babangida and the two top security chiefs since Giwa's death,
said on Monday he had been invited by the government to be in its legal
team.
[ENDS]