Abacha's Regime is Implicated in Alex Ibru Shooting
BANJI AYILOGE
Phone calls from major pro democracy operatives in Nigeria today point
accusing fingers at the regime of Mr. Sani Abacha as the culprit behind the
attempted murder of Alex Ibru, the publisher of the Guardian independent
Newspaper.
" We saw it coming, but were not sure who the target would be"
reported an operative who claimed to have telephoned from a location far
from his home because his phone had been tapped by agents of the murderous
regime.
"Abacha's boys had early on in the week took a paid advertisement in a
daily paper vowing to revenge the bomb blasts at Kaduna and Kano". In the
ad, the group operating under the generic name of "Nigerian Patriotic
Front" vowed to revenge the two bombings.
Alex Ibru may have been targeted because his newspaper continues to
report the ever growing disaffection with the regime of Mr. Abacha by the
good people of Nigeria.
His assassination was designed to send panic into the rank and file of
the pro-democracy groups without incurring international condemnation
reminiscent of the judicial killing of KSW and eight others. They would
have blamed his murder on armed robbers but nothing was taken from him.
Meanwhile, democracy activists have vowed not to give up even as the
regime grows more desperate. We either go down fighting or do nothing and
still go down" added a young activist who likened his struggle to the
battle for the future our Country.
Banji Ayiloge,USA