Amnesty International Report 1999 - Nigeria

NIGERIA

More than 100 prisoners of conscience and possible prisoners of conscience were released, although at least 44 others remained imprisoned throughout the year. Early in the year, human rights activists and journalists were arrested and beaten. Torture and ill-treatment of prisoners continued to be reported and at least two political prisoners died in prison in unexplained circumstances. At least 29 prisoners were sentenced to death and at least six were executed. Six death sentences imposed for political offences were commuted.

In April all five government-sponsored political parties – the only parties allowed to operate at that time – agreed to support General Sani Abacha, head of the military government, as presidential candidate. Political protests broke out and were suppressed: pro-democracy activists and human rights defenders were arrested and ill-treated, and 10 people were reportedly shot dead by police and others injured. In the first half of the year, private as well as public meetings involving human rights or democracy groups were forcibly broken up by the security police.

General Abacha died unexpectedly on 8 June and was replaced by General Abdulsalami Abubakar as head of the military government. Scores of prisoners of conscience and other political prisoners were subsequently released and six death sentences imposed for political offences were commuted.

General Abubakar promised that the military would step down in May 1999 under a new "transition to civil rule", but rejected calls by some pro-democracy groups for a sovereign national conference to agree a new constitution or for a government of national unity to supervise the transition. In August the government annulled earlier elections to local governments and to state and national legislatures conducted under the previous government's "transition to civil rule". It revoked decrees which had placed the Nigeria Labour Congress and the two main oil workers' unions under direct government control and had dissolved three university staff unions. However, it left in force decrees providing for arbitrary detention and the imprisonment of prisoners of conscience. In December local government elections were contested by nine new political parties.

There was increased hostage-taking of oil workers and attacks on oil installations by youths from Niger delta communities seeking a share of oil revenues, development assistance or compensation for environmental damage by oil companies. In May, two youths were shot dead in disputed circumstances when the military ended the occupation of an offshore oil platform by members of the Ilaje community. In December soldiers reportedly shot dead at least six demonstrators after a call by Ijaw groups for the military and the oil companies to leave Ijaw territories.

On 7 July prisoner of conscience Moshood Abiola, the reported winner of the 1993 presidential elections which were annulled by the military (see previous Amnesty International Reports), died in detention. Suspicions about the cause of his death led to unrest in the southwest of the country during which a number of people were killed.

In April the UN Commission on Human Rights extended the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Nigeria, who was appointed in 1997, for a further year. In his report to the Commission, the Special Rapporteur highlighted the absence of the rule of law in Nigeria. In his September report to the UN General Assembly, he welcomed the releases of political prisoners and the commitments made by the new government but noted that the rule of law and constitutional rights had not been restored. In September the authorities invited him to visit Nigeria; he had previously been denied access to the country. He visited Nigeria in November and repeated his call for the revocation of decrees that provide for administrative detention and unfair trials by special courts. In March the International Labour Organisation established a commission of inquiry into persistent violations of trade union rights in Nigeria, including the detention of trade unionists, and in August sent a delegation to Nigeria. It had previously been denied access.

The government of General Abubakar and the courts ordered the release of more than 100 prisoners of conscience and possible prisoners of conscience. On 15 June the government announced the first nine releases. Among them were people who had been detained without charge or trial, including oil workers' leaders Frank Ovie Kokori and Milton G. Dabibi, held since 1994 and 1996 respectively, and lawyer and pro-democracy leader Chief Olabiyi Durojaiye, detained since 1996. Also released were retired General Olusegun Obasanjo, Head of State from 1976 to 1979; human rights and pro-democracy activist Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti; and a journalist, Christiana Anyanwu. They had been convicted of treason after secret and grossly unfair military trials in 1995. At least five political detainees were released in the following days, including human rights lawyer Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, who had been detained without charge or trial since 1997.

On 25 June the government announced the release of 17 more political prisoners. Ten had been charged with treason in March 1997, including pro-democracy and human rights leaders Dr Frederick Fasehun and former government minister Olu Falae. Six had been detained without charge or trial following pro-democracy protests on 1 May in Ibadan, including lawyers and pro-democracy leaders Olisa Agbakoba (see below) and Ayo Opadokun, and human rights and pro-democracy activist Olusegun Maiyegun.

Also on 25 June the High Court discharged 33 of those arrested following pro-democracy protests in Ibadan and who were charged with riot and arson. They included former senator Alhaji Lam Adesina, trade union leader Alhaji Lateef Akinsola and newspaper editor Femi Adeoti, who had also been charged with subversion.

On 20 July the government announced that it had pardoned 10 civilians convicted of involvement in an alleged coup plot in 1995 and tried in secret by Special Military Tribunal. Among those released were Shehu Sani, Vice-Chairman of the Campaign for Democracy; and newspaper editors Kunle Ajibade, George Mbah and Ben Charles Obi. General Obasanjo, Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti and Christiana Anyanwu had been released earlier (see above).

In September, 20 Ogoni prisoners who had been detained without trial, most of them since 1994, were released (see previous Amnesty International Reports). They had been ostensibly awaiting trial on the same murder charges that were brought against Ken Saro-Wiwa, head of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP), and the eight other Ogoni men executed with him in November 1995 after unfair and politically motivated trials. Previous attempts to have the 20 prisoners released on bail or brought promptly to trial had been obstructed by government appeals against court rulings for their release on bail and by their lack of access to lawyers. For most of their detention, the 20 prisoners were detained incommunicado, denied access to their families and, for the first two years, their lawyers. They suffered serious illnesses as a result of insanitary prison conditions and lack of food and medical treatment.

In December Ibrahim Al-Zakzaky and three other leading members of the Muslim Brotherhood were released by the High Court in Kaduna, northern Nigeria, after charges of inciting public disaffection and sedition were withdrawn. They had been imprisoned since 1996.

In September General Abubakar confirmed that charges against political exiles, including writer and Nobel Prize laureate Wole Soyinka, had been withdrawn. Several of them subsequently returned to Nigeria.

At least 44 prisoners of conscience and possible prisoners of conscience remained held at the end of the year after being convicted of treason in unfair and secret trials by Special Military Tribunal. Following a coup attempt in April 1990 and a series of secret trials which resulted in the execution of 69 armed forces officers, 11 soldiers remained imprisoned despite pardons and court orders for their release. In July, one officer, David Mukoro, was reported to have died in detention from tuberculosis and medical neglect. In October a civilian unfairly convicted in the case, Turner Ochuko Ogburo, was released. A High Court order for his release in 1994 had previously been ignored.

Eighteen serving and retired armed forces officers were still held in connection with a series of treason trials in 1995 in which more than 40 defendants were convicted of involvement in an alleged coup attempt. Of the prisoners still held, Navy Commander L.M.O. Fabiyi, a lawyer, was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment reportedly for passing a defendant's defence submission to others. Another lawyer, Colonel Roland N. Emokpae, sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment, was reported in June to be seriously ill with liver problems and to have been denied appropriate medical treatment in prison. There was no inquiry into reports of torture of some of the defendants, including Lieutenant-Colonel M.A. Igwe, who was sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment reportedly after he refused to implicate others.

In April a Special Military Tribunal convicted 10 armed forces officers, including former Deputy Head of State General Oladipo Diya, and six civilians of treason or related offences in connection with an alleged coup plot in December 1997. Their trials were grossly unfair, conducted in secret by a tribunal which denied them practically all rights of defence. In July the government announced the commutation of the death sentences imposed on General Diya and five others, including Adebola Adebanjo, an engineer. Long prison sentences passed on other detainees were reduced and one officer had his sentence reduced to dismissal from the army. In December, one of the six officers whose death sentences had been commuted, Lieutenant-Colonel Olu Akiode, died in  unexplained circumstances in Makurdi prison. No investigation was conducted into the causes of his death. Eight officers and six civilians remained in prison at the end of the year.

Throughout the first half of the year human rights activists and journalists were arrested and beaten. In March human rights lawyer Femi Falana was held for six days. He was among a group of people detained without charge for attending a seminar in Ilorin, Kwara State. Also in March human rights lawyer Olisa Agbakoba (see above) was beaten and gun-butted in the face by police officers when he attempted to negotiate with them during a pro-democracy march in Lagos, the capital. He was detained for two days and charged with public order offences, with about 30 other people, for organizing the march.

Torture or ill-treatment of detainees by soldiers and police at the time of arrest and in order to induce them to make incriminating statements was routine. In January Batom Mitee, brother of Ledum Mitee, Acting President of MOSOP, and Tombari Gioro were among dozens of MOSOP supporters arrested by armed troops in Bori, the main town in Ogoniland, to stop them celebrating "Ogoni Day". They were reported to have been beaten with rifle butts and electric cables, and subsequently to have been denied food and medical attention for their injuries. They and other Ogoni detainees were detained without charge or trial until May. On several occasions, soldiers assaulted journalists carrying out their professional duties, including while they were reporting street protests.

At least 29 prisoners were sentenced to death for political and criminal offences and at least six people were executed. In February, six men convicted of armed robbery were executed by a firing squad in front of hundreds of people at Kirikiri prison, Lagos.

Hundreds of prisoners remained under sentence of death, some of them many years after their conviction. Most had been sentenced to death by Robbery and Firearms Tribunals, special courts which allow no right of appeal.

Amnesty International appealed for the release of prisoners of conscience, for the prompt and fair trial of all political prisoners, and for an end to torture and the death penalty. At the time of a visit to Nigeria by the Pope in March, Amnesty International protested at the arrests and beatings of human rights activists and journalists. In July it called for a full inquiry into the death of Moshood Abiola and into the cases of other prisoners of conscience who had died in detention in unexplained circumstances (see Amnesty International Report 1998).

Amnesty International welcomed the releases of prisoners of conscience and the commutation of six death sentences. It continued to appeal for the release of prisoners of conscience, the review of the conviction of unfairly tried political prisoners, and the repeal of military decrees which allow the imprisonment of prisoners of conscience and the suppression of the rule of law.