The Al-Mustapha Coup Bogey

By

Prof. Omo Omoruyi

‘SECURITY BREACHES’, A CODED TERM FOR A COUP PLOT FROM PRISON ANOTHER OBASANJO’S DIVERSION AT THE EXPENSE OF AL-MUSTAPHA’S HUMAN RIGHTS.

There is no question that the current democratic experiment in Nigeria has lost focus; it is in fact failing. This is why poor Al Mustapha incarcerated for over four years in the Maximum Security Prison Kirikiri for no cause of his, since 1999 is now rumored as the organizer of a violent change of government. Al-Mustapha’s right to human dignity as an accused is being violated in the way he is being treated by the dreaded and most anti-democratic institution in the Nigerian army called the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI).

This institution is concocting a charge even when the original murder accusation still remains unresolved. One would recall that he was accused of killing some political leaders during the period of General Sani Abacha and kept in prison since 1999. Now he is being accused of participating in some activities that are summed up by the DMI with two words, ‘security breaches’. How can a man under lock and key in the Maximum Security Prison be engaged with other persons outside the prison in activities that could threaten the security of the nation? Is this not a diversion at a time when there are many unresolved issues that the President is unable to address?

DO SOLDIERS HAVE HUMAN RIGHTS?

The action of the security men in a democracy ought to be different from the action of the same security men in a military regime that Nigerians knew so well. There is an obvious violation of the human rights of those arrested from the Prison and from the barracks. Unfortunately, one is still to read of the action of human rights organizations in Nigeria and in the international community. Prisoners have rights under the various human rights regime; accused persons have constitutional rights including right to counsel of his choice under the Nigerian constitution and they must be deemed innocent until found guilty.

It should be obvious to the Nigerian people that justice delayed is justice denied so the lawyer would say. For Al-Mustapha to stay in prison since 1999 under a democracy and not having justice is a sad reflection on the nature of the justice under the Nigerian judiciary in a democratic order. An accused person remanded in prison custody is not a prisoner. He should not be picked up in the middle of the night by unknown persons from the DMI and taken to an undisclosed place. This is clearly a violation of the right of the detained person who is yet to get justice in his original case. It is a travesty of justice that men of the DMI should have access to a man standing trial for murder without his counsel. This is not all.

The peace of the in-mates in the Maximum Security Prison was disturbed in the middle of the night. They ought to have been allowed to sleep as human beings undisturbed. What happened to these inmates and other detained persons amounted to a gross violation of their right to human dignity. Did this ever happen under the military regime?

THE INVASION OF THE MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON

The invasion of the maximum Security Prison was well reported in all Nigerian media; the Special Assistant to the President Ms. Oluremi Oyo also confirmed this, that some soldiers had been picked up and facing special investigation panel to get at the root of the intention of the soldiers.

Nigerians were told that a contingent of over 200 armed police and plain-clothes security men in 20 vehicles went to pick up one person from the Maximum Security Prison between 2 and 3 am. Nigerians were told that the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) was involved in this operation.

Nigerians should not be victims of the DMI in a democracy. Nigerians only need to play back the horrible accounts of the activities of the DMI from the testimonies at the Oputa Commission. President Obasanjo ought to appreciate that Nigeria is under a democracy. He ought to appreciate that Nigerians should be humanely treated. He should have been told that an accused person should be presumed innocent until proved guilty. There is obviously a gross violation of the rights of civilians, inmates and detained persons in the prison. There are reports that Al-Mustapha was shot in the leg when he refused to follow men of the DMI. Would he have resisted arrest and interrogation if the persons were from the police force? Al-Mustapha being one of them in the past knew what would befall him in the hands of the men of the DMI. Who would not be?

ARREST OF SOLDIERS

Nigerians were also told of the arrest of over 200 soldiers who were complaining of so many things that the administration was not doing well. Nigerians are yet to be told of the relationship between the arrest of a man in prison awaiting trial or under trial and the arrest of over 200 officers from the barracks.

It is a sad reflection on the character of the Nigerian political class that since 2003 when it became so glaring that President Obasanjo had become visionless and devoid of focus that no alternative politically focused organization could emerge to bring about political changes in Nigeria. It is sad to note that the Nigerian democratic institutions such as political parties including the ruling party are dead; the other elective arm of the federal government is rudderless.

It is also sad that the Judiciary is under severe threat from the way the executive talk down on the Judges that fail to deliver judgment that they like. Still fresh is the case of Adamawa where the Vice President was threatening fire and brimstone over a ruling that found him wanting in the election in his local government area. He was even reported threatening to beat up the Chairman of the Tribunal, a Judge because the Tribunal found him, his party the PDP and the gubernatorial candidate of his party the master riggers of elections the Adamawa State in April 2003.

SOLDIERS COMPLAINTS AS REPORTED IN THE MEDIA ARE UNIVERSAL

What the soldiers are complaining about is not new. We are told in the various Nigerian newspapers that the soldiers were openly complaining about the following issues:

Are these not also the subjects of discussion in the Nigerian media?

Are these not the subjects of discussion in the Universities and in the market places?

Have these questions not been raised with President Obasanjo by many delegations from various parts of the country? What is his answer to these delegations?

Are these complaints by the soldiers new?

Are these complaints too widespread to be associated with one group in the country?

Nigerians and the international community know or should know that it is a matter of fact that what the soldiers are complaining about is not new, that it is widespread and that it is affecting all sections of the Nigerian population. Why pick on the soldiers alone? Do soldiers have the right to talk among themselves? President Obasanjo and his government should not forget that that the soldiers like other Nigerians are also victims of the visionless regime. The soldiers like other Nigerians in employment are overstretched as their relation come to them everyday who are suffering because the government had abandoned them.

This is what the administration is calling ‘a coup scare’ or ‘intent to disrupt the democratic rule’. Another dimension in the story is that the disruption was planned to take religious, ethnic and geo-political lines. (Vanguard online of April 1, 2004).  Nigerians in the north, south, east and west are complaining loud that the government under the leadership of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has become too tyrannical, corrupt, and unresponsive to the need of the people. It is sad that some elements in the southwest are ethnicizing the matter just as they did the June 12 instead of working with likeminded people in the country to challenge the existing political order that has become so bad and unjust to all sections of Nigeria.

The view that this regime has become unresponsive to the needs of Nigerians is also shared in the international community by Nigerians in the Diaspora and by investors except those who are making money from the oil deals with the political leaders of Nigeria.

I routinely go through the Nigerian newspapers, the newsmagazines and the various websites in the Diaspora. What is common in all about Nigeria is the feeling of frustration bothering on disillusionment as to what to do about the tyrannical regime at Abuja. They should not be disillusioned; there are solutions from empirical cases if the Nigerian people would think a little. What these cases are from which Nigerians can choose will be the subject of another essay.

Lest one forgets, as a human rights advocate, may I call on the Nigerian human rights organizations to agitate on behalf Al-Mustapha that President Obasanjo should respect the human rights of Al-Mustapha who like all persons awaiting trial has human rights. This has not been said aloud in the media.

The human rights organizations should plead with the President of Nigeria that he should extend the same treatment of the alleged murderer of the Attorney General to the alleged killers of other Nigerian political leaders. If the alleged killer of the Attorney General could ‘win’ an election from prison and participate in the work of the Senate from prison and be paid as a Senator from public funds, Al-Mustapha who was retired from the army since 1999 should be allowed to operate his account from prison and interact with members of his family and lawyers while awaiting trial and conviction.

Maybe President Obasanjo should be reminded of what he said about Omisore? He called him an accused person and not a convicted felon. He said that Omisore had rights of all citizens that included seeking nomination and election to the Nigerian Senate. Human rights organizations in Nigeria should ask the President, why he would not extend the same right he approved for Omisore to A-Mustapha and others like him instead of using him to change the subject of abject failure?

April 2004