News for January 8th, 1997

[NaijaNewsDaily *Read All About it*]

Disclaimer: For all those who are not aware, General Abacha and those
associated with him, i.e. Ministers, Commissioners, Political party
stalwarts, etc, are all criminals who are holding Nigeria hostage, or
positioning themselves to hold it hostage. They do not constitute the
legitimate or legal Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, or
the political parties of the country, for they have no legal or moral
authority to do so, or be so respectively, and all stories about them
should be read from that perspective.

For those who might not be aware, the legal President and
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria is Moshood Abiola, who
has been illegally held in detention since June 1994 by the forces of
evil under the diabolical leadership of General Sani Abacha. With the
two legal political parties being the National Republican Convention
(NRC), and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), both of which have
temporarily (since 1993) been prevented from carrying out their
responsibilities by the criminal element in the Nigerian armed forces
led by (the same) General Abacha.

And now for the news.
-------------------
Main Stories:

''COUPISTS PLANNED TO RELOCATE CAPITAL''
NBA CAUTIONS ON PREJUDICIAL COUP COMMENTS
HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST AND REPORTER ARRESTED
ANALYSTS SAY BUDGET WILL NOT WOO FOREIGN INVESTORS
SIERRA LEONE REGIME FIRES ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS AT NIGERIAN JETS
World Cup-Nantes to remove fences
Liberia shuts radio station after Internet flap
S.Leone junta guns fire at Nigerian plane

Thursday 8 January 1998
--------------------
''COUPISTS PLANNED TO RELOCATE CAPITAL''

Military officers arrested in connection with the alleged coup plot had
planned to relocate Nigeria's capital city Abuja to Lagos, a member of
the
all military Provisional Ruling Council has said. ''I tell you this
thing
they planned to do would have been the bloodiest in the nation's
history.
Part of their plan was to move the capital back to Lagos'' Lt General
Jerry
Useni who is also the cabinet minister for the Federal Capital Territory
told a group of local chiefs. ''The coup plotters planned to bombard the
Presidential Villa and assassinate General Abacha and other prominent
figures''.
Opposition groups have urged the regime to prosecute the
alleged
coup plotters in a normal court if the the government is convinced that
an
offence had been committed. In the past few days several top government
officials have made different statements on the coup plot. The usual
refrain is that Abacha and several other military officers would have
been
killed. On Tuesday Foreign Affairs Minister Chief Tom Ikimi said the
coupists had planned to loot Nigeria's foreign reserves
''painstakingly''
accumulated by the regime. Yesterday, Enugu State military
administrator,
Col. Sule Aman said the coup would have been executed in Enugu. ''We
don't
plan evil in this state and any coup plan here will not succeed''. The
National Reconciliation chairman Chief Alex Akinyele described the plot
as
''shameful'' and urged the government to make public the evidence
gathered
against the alleged plotters.

NBA CAUTIONS ON PREJUDICIAL COUP COMMENTS

The Lagos branch of the Nigerian Bar Association says it is concerned
about
''prejudicial utterances'' on the alleged coup plot. The group said
nobody
but the courts can pass judgement on the arrested suspects. The group
was
reacting to the ''free for all comments'' made by those who had viewed
video tapes which the government said had compelling evidence of a plot
to
assassinate General Abacha and to overthrow his regime. ''It is
embarrassing and scandalous that people in high places such as our
traditional rulers, military administrators and senior government
officials
could trivialise the fundamental human rights of the citizens by their
utterances and outright condemnation of the alleged coup plotters
without
having gone through the due process of law''. The group accused the
press
of ''sensationalising'' the coup story and feeding members of the public
with a guilty verdict.

HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST AND REPORTER ARRESTED

Security agents have arrested a Port Harcourt based human rights
activists, Mr Anyakwee Nsirimovu. The activists is an executive director
of
The Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. He was picked up on
Tuesday at 52 Mbonu Street in the Rivers State capital. No reasons were
given for his arrest. Also arrested was a Thisday reporter Tokunbo
Awosika
who is also based in the oil city. Sources said he was bundled into a
pickup van by six security men. His arrest may not be unconnected with
reports he filed on the "Ogoni Day'' celebrations.

ANALYSTS SAY BUDGET WILL NOT WOO FOREIGN INVESTORS

The federal budget claims a commitment to reform, but does not do
enough
to assure wary foreign investors that the country is a good risk,
analysts
said yesterday. Budget details, announced by finance minister Chief
Anthony
Ani on Tuesday, offered state phone company NITEL as a sacrificial lamb
to
long-demanded privatisation and pledged more spending to kick the
recession-bound economy into action in an election year. Left out was
the
scrapping of a dual exchange rate system which has blocked discussions
on
debt rescheduling, while funding for the lifeblood oil industry was much
less than it had hoped for to be able to increase output. Uncertainty
was
also heightened by the arrest of the deputy head of state and several
others for allegedly plotting to cause mutiny. ``The budget demonstrates
a
continuation of the process of consolidation. There is now a very public
commitment to privatisation and that is very positive,'' World Bank
resident representative Trevor Byer told reporters. ``Let's hope the
commitments are followed,'' he added. Those close to the military
government say the cautious steps taken towards liberalisation should be
seen in the context of a Nigeria which has to tread a delicate political
line to avoid catastrophe.

Outside investors demand more. ``Nothing in the budget told me that
there
has been any great change of heart,'' said one Nigerian banker. ``We
weren't expecting a rush of foreign investment anyway, but I can't see
anything much in the budget to encourage it.'' A serious indication of
the
danger which Nigeria faces, and which scare off investors, was the
arrest
last month of Abacha's deputy for allegedly plotting his violent demise.
Few analysts had expected a budget to please foreigners when Nigeria's
power brokers and electorate need to be satisfied. However Ani had
raised
hopes in the run-up to the budget that the dual exchange rate, which
gives
some branches of government cheap foreign currency, would be scrapped.
Ani's protestations that the dual exchange rate is in fact being phased
out
do little to banish doubts over accountability raised by the foreign
creditors who hold the key to any rescheduling of more than $27 billion
in
debt. ``It is a little bit premature to talk about it,'' commented Byer
on
the possibility of an agreement between Nigeria and the IMF, that would
be
the first step towards debt rescheduling. Nigerian analysts said more
worrying, in the long term, could be the budget's failure to meet the
funding demands of the oil industry which accounts for more than 90
percent
of foreign earnings. Joint venture oil companies got $2.5 billion, $500
million more than last year, but still $1.0 billion down on what they
had
asked for. ``Quite frankly it's disappointing,'' said a senior official
with one of the joint venture partners. ``The effects will be hard to
calculate at this stage, but I can assure you they won't be positive.''

SIERRA LEONE REGIME FIRES ANTI-AIRCRAFT GUNS AT NIGERIAN JETS

Sierra Leonean troops yesterday fired anti-aircraft guns at a Nigerian
Alpha fighter jet after it twice flew over Freetown. Witnesses and
military sources said the plane, which is attached to the ECOMOG force,
returned fire at gun placements in the Aberdeen Beach area of western
Freetown. Reports said the jet dropped at least three cluster bombs on
the
city. The firing lasted less than ten minutes and briefly created panic
in
the city, but there were no reports of injuries. Troops were quickly
deployed to the area to restore order. Sierra Leone regime Director of
Defence Information Lieutenant-Colonel John Milton denied reports that
the
plane dropped bombs. "The jet flew suspiciously over Freetown as if it
wanted to drop bombs on the city," Milton said. "That was a violation of
the cease-fire and provocation. That is why our anti-aircraft guns
opened
fire on the jet. We wanted to scare it away." Outgoing ECOMOG force
commander Major-General Victor Malu confirmed yesterday that ECOMOG will
increase its military presence in Sierra Leone to 15,000 troops, from
its
current strength of around 5,000. Nigeria's Concord newspaper quoted
Nigerian Director of Defence Information Colonel Godwin Ugbo as saying
that
the military buildup was in response to "intelligence reports from
Sierra
Leone that the junta is still importing arms into the country through
the
northern region."

World Cup-Nantes to remove fences

NANTES, France, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Nantes will remove perimeter fencing
at their Stade de La Beaujoire for the
soccer World Cup finals it was announced on Wednesday, leaving the
tournament almost fence-free.

The city authorities announced the decision after a meeting with
security officials and said in a statement the costs of
removal will be met the World Cup organising committee CFO.

``It was decided because the programme of matches to be played in Nantes
presents no danger, in principle, on a
security level,'' the mayor's sports aide Michel Cordier said.

Nantes will stage six World Cup matches, five in the first round
including Spain versus Nigeria in group D and
holders Brazil's meeting with Morocco in group A, and a quarter-final.

The decision leaves only one of the World Cup venues, St Etienne,
maintaining perimeter fencing, although only
because of financial difficulties.

Nantes' decision suggests impoverished former French giants St Etienne,
now languishing in the second division,
could also receive CFO aid to enable the June 10-July 12 tournament to
be wholly fence-free.

The CFO announced in November that the other eight World Cup stadiums
would not have perimeter fencing,
which world soccer body FIFA opposes, during the tournament.

The other venues are the Stade de France at St Denis outside Paris and
the Parc des Princes in the capital, Lens,
Lyon, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Marseille and Toulouse.

Other first round matches at Nantes are Japan against Croatia, Chile v
Cameroon and U.S. against Yugoslavia.
^REUTERS@

Liberia shuts radio station after Internet flap

By Jackson Kanneh

MONROVIA, Liberia (Reuters) - Liberian authorities Wednesday ordered the
closure of a radio station funded by
the United States as a neutral voice for the country's political groups,
after the government charged the media outlet
with violating policies by publishing news on the Internet.

Communications Minister Maxwell Kabbah told the station's managers that
Star Radio had violated the law by
broadcasting on a frequency allocated to another company, Radio
Monrovia.

"They have said we are not properly constituted, so they ordered us
closed down," station manager George Bannett
told Reuters.

Just before the closure order, the government had accused Star Radio of
placing Liberian newspaper articles on the
Internet against government policy, a charge Bannett denied.

"We don't put newspaper articles on the Internet. We fax out transcripts
of our news bulletins to our partners in
Holland who then put them on the Internet, mainly for Liberians living
abroad," he said.

He said the minister had raised the question of the Internet articles at
a recent meeting.

Star Radio was established in the run-up to Liberia's July 19 elections
marking the end of a seven-year civil war to
counter-balance Kiss FM, the highly effective radio of former warlord
Charles Taylor, who went on to win the
presidential poll.

Star broadcasts in 14 Liberian languages as well as in English and
French, on FM and short-wave frequencies.

Taylor unexpectedly shut down Kiss FM radio and television company on
Tuesday grounds of inefficiency.

Star is funded by the United States Agency for International Development
through the Washington-based
International Foundations for Elections Systems, which played a key
monitoring and logistics role in the Liberian
polls.

The closure of Star Radio appeared to be part of an ongoing government
crackdown on the Liberian media which
has drawn strong condemnation from human rights groups, diplomats and
the church.

Authorities Tuesday banned the independent Heritage daily for an
indefinite period without offering any reason.
Heritage last week published an article critical of the government for
its strained relations with the ECOMOG West
African peacekeeping force that has been policing Liberia since shortly
after the start of the war in December 1989.

"The diplomatic corps is concerned about recent violations of human
rights such as freedom of speech and
movements," Sierra Leone's ambassador, Wilfred Kanu, said on behalf of
foreign diplomats at an official reception
last Friday.

"The international community is ready to give full support to the
reconstruction of this nation provided that there is a
genuine commitment by the government to uphold the rule of law, such as
freedom of the press, unrestricted
movement of persons and respect for human rights," he added.

Ambassadors present included those from the United States, Germany,
Spain, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Egypt and
Taiwan.

Human rights and religious groups have denounced abuses. Journalists
publishing articles critical of the government
have been detained and their offices raided.

The information ministry has dismissed the criticism as unjustified,
saying that journalists and publishers who had
fallen foul of the law had been properly charged in court.

(Reuters/Wired)

FOCUS-S.Leone junta guns fire at Nigerian plane

FREETOWN, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Forces loyal to Sierra Leone's
military rulers opened fire on a Nigerian warplane on Wednesday,
accusing it of breaching a ceasefire deal by flying over the capital
Freetown.

Witnesses and military sources said that the jet, which flew over
the city twice, returned fire. The incident, which caused panic
among civilians, lasted less than 10 minutes and calm later returned
to the city.

"The jet flew suspiciously over Freetown as if it wanted to drop
bombs on the city. That was a violation of the ceasefire and
provocation. That is why our anti-aircraft guns opened fire on the
jet," military spokesman Major John Milton told Reuters.
"We wanted to scare it away," he said, rejecting reports that the
plane had dropped bombs.

The plane was from a Nigerian-led West African peacekeeping
force which is based at Lungi international airport outside
Freetown and has the job of policing sanctions imposed to force
the restoration of elected president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.

The incident caused panic among local residents. Shops closed
and parents raced to collect their children from school.

Witnesses said that the plane fired at gun emplacements in the
western Aberdeen beach area.

The former British colony's military rulers, who took power after
an army coup toppled Kabbah on May 25, agreed in October to
restore Kabbah to power by April 1998 but implementation of the
deal has dragged, particularly disarmament.

Parents have been reluctant to send their children to school and
teachers have said that they will not work until security is restored
to the city but classes resumed on Tuesday after repeated appeals
by the junta for parents to send their children. Attendance was thin
both on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Copyright 1997 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
--------------
NEWS IN BRIEF

Former Special Duties Minister Alhaji Wada Nas quits partisan politics,
says politics in Nigeria is a 'cash and carry business''. Nas said
there
is being turned into a one party state.

Privatisation of some state enterprise is not necessary, Lagos lawyer
Chief Gani Fawehinmi has said. ''No body cared to find out if Nigerians
want privatisation right now''. Fawehinmi asked why the government
itself
has not been privatised since various governments since independence
had
failed the nation. He described the 150 million naira education fund
announced in the budget as inadequate.

Lagos state unveils budget estimated at 16.8 billion naira, the first
time
a state government would spend such an amount. It is 3 billion naira
more
that the previous year. The state military administrator Col Mohammed
Marwa
called a Budget of ''consolidation''

Four persons have been arrested by the police in connection with the
shooting of Lagos state assistant commissioner of police, Kehinde
Oyenuga

A Nigerian professor has been awarded an American prize for outstanding
women scientists. The professor, Grace Oladunni Lucia Taylor, teaches
chemical pathology at University of Ibadan. She received
twenty-thousand
dollars from the Helena Rubinstein foundation for her contribution to
science.

Government will ensure that planned privatisation of state companies is
not
hijacked by a few wealthy citizens to detriment of majority, says
Finance
Minister Ani.

Infrastructure development got biggest share of 1998 budget with 46.28
billion naira ($611.4 million) or 18.96 percent, followed by education
with
26.7 billion naira or 10.94 percent and defence with 23.08 billion naira
or
9.8 percent. Petroleum sector gets $3.45 billion or 21.56 percent of
nation's projected foreign earnings of $16.03 billion.

Stock Exchange to change name to Lagos Stock Exchange -- its name at
inception in 1960. New legal framework being set up to accommodate new
exchange in capital Abuja.

Government steps up efforts to improve efficiency at ports and make
clearance of goods possible in 48 hours.
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