Sani Abacha Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Regime maintenance === Abacha assembled a personal security force of 3,000 men trained in [[North Korea]]. Abacha's chief security officer [[Hamza al-Mustapha]] had an iron grip on the apparatus of military-security. The [[Nigeria Police Force]] underwent a large scale retraining. The state cracked down ruthlessly on criminals and dissidents, the [[National Democratic Coalition (Nigeria)|National Democratic Coalition]] was attributed with several bombings across the country, and several members were arrested.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Refugees|first=United Nations High Commissioner for|title=Nigeria: Bombing incidents at Lagos airport between June 1996 and November 1997, including identity of persons injured, reaction of authorities and outcome of investigations or prosecutions|url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6ab4d1c.html|access-date=2020-05-13|website=Refworld}}</ref> When [[Moshood Abiola]] proclaimed himself president, he was jailed for [[treason]] and subsequently died in custody.<ref>{{cite web|title=Nigeria: Human Rights Watch Africa|url=https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Urgent_Action/apic_52396.html|access-date=2020-05-24|website=www.africa.upenn.edu}}</ref> Also, former military ruler [[Olusegun Obasanjo]] was jailed for treason and accused of plotting a coup together with General [[Oladipo Diya]].<ref>{{cite web|date=10 June 1998|title=NEW NIGERIA CHIEF PLEDGES A RETURN TO CIVILIAN RULE|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/10/world/new-nigeria-chief-pledges-a-return-to-civilian-rule.html|work=The New York Times}}</ref> In 1997, General [[Shehu Yar'Adua]] who was also jailed died in custody. Abacha's regime was accused of [[human rights]] abuses, especially after the hanging of [[Ogoni]] activist [[Ken Saro-Wiwa]] (only one of several executions of Ogoni activists opposed to the exploitation of [[Petroleum industry in Nigeria|Nigerian resources]] by the [[Multinational corporation|multinational]] [[petroleum]] company, [[Royal Dutch Shell]]), whose death later led to the eviction of Nigeria from the Commonwealth Nations.<ref name="Arnold7892222">{{cite book|last=Arnold|first=Guy|url=https://archive.org/details/africamodernhist00arno|title=Africa: A Modern History|date=2005|publisher=Atlantic Books|isbn=9781843541769|location=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/africamodernhist00arno/page/789 789]|url-access=registration}}</ref> [[Wole Soyinka]] was charged in absentia with treason.<ref name="eb222" /> Abacha's regime suffered opposition externally by pro-democracy activists. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page