Al Mustapha: Between a Coup & Security Breach

A-Mustapha and Obasanjo

Beginning with an April 1st 2004, Vanguard story headlined "FG tackles coup scare in barracks", - which some observers initially considered an "April Fool's joke" - the stage was quickly set for what has now become a fixation about an alleged military coup-in-utero. The newspaper said "Ten months into the second term of Obasanjo’s Presidency, the military authorities are battling frantically to contain a coup scare threatening the democratic rule and espirit de corps in the Armed Forces. As at the last count, not less than 22 officers are said to have been interrogated and the net has been cast wide for more suspects."

It went on to say, "Vanguard sources hinted that the masterminds of the unlawful intent to disrupt the democratic rule had been recruiting officers along religious, ethnic and geo-political lines with intent to incite men under arms against the state." Needless to say, this unfortunate comment - which the article could have done without - came across as if the alleged 'plot' had geopolitical and religious fault lines. In a country with a track record for conspiracy theories and easy incitement, red flags immediately went up and the discourse was poisoned from then on with a regional-ethnic-religious undercurrent.

Vanguard also gathered that the movement of Major Al-Mustapha from Kirikiri Prisons by the Directorate of Military Intelligence yesterday may not be unconnected with the information gathered from people who have been questioned with regard to the coup scare."....."Vanguard gathered that the military authorities are trying hard to manage the damage the coup scare might have been causing among the officers and men of the Armed Forces. Consequently, the Federal Government has commenced immediate payment of all arrears of salaries and wages of military men with steady releases by the Minister of Finance, Okonjo Iweala, to that effect."

In an account titled "Police avert jailbreak as Kirikiri, inmates protest Al-Mustapha's transfer" the Vanguard reported contradictory accounts, saying,

"A source told Vanguard on account of anonymity that, the armed policemen stormed the prison at about 6p.m. on Tuesday to effect the arrest of Mustapha, but other inmates foiled the move, following which the policemen went away to re-group. They returned at 10p.m. fully armed and even arrested a top official of the prison who was taken away hand-cuffed. Vanguard learnt that there were sporadic gunshots by the policemen who took the prison official to his residence, very close to the prison, which was searched also. But, according to another account, the DMI operatives arrived the maximum prisons at about 11.30 p.m. following a directive from Abuja to transfer Al-Mustapha to DMI. It was gathered that in the process, some armed robbery suspect inmates reportedly forced their way out and attacked the prison’s staff who went to hand Al-Mustapha to the DMI operatives. Other inmates were said to have joined in the scuffle with a view to preventing the DMI men from taking Al-Mustapha. Some prisons staff were reportedly held hostage in the process. It, however, took the intervention of a large number of patrol team, which comprised MOPOL and conventional policemen to quell the situation. The team said to have been led by the Area Commander, BRAVO MOPOL, Mr. L.F Salami, shot sporadically into the air to scare away the inmates."

On that same day, another newspaper (Guardian) provided its ow version of the "details. The newspaper said, inter alia, that "Hamza Al-Mustapha..........was forcefully removed from detention at Kiririki Maximum Prisons, Lagos in a dawn operation by security men Wednesday." However, (and this is important), the report specifically said "the Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS) has denied that Mustapha was abducted." Clearly, there was a drama involve in moving the Major from one form of custody in the state apparatus to another but he certainly was not "abducted.

Indeed, the Abuja based Comptroller General (CGP) of the Nigerian Prison Service (NPS), Abraham Akpe, publicly revealed that he had received a formal request a week earlier, dated March 25, from the National Security Adviser (Lt. Gen. Aliyu Mohammed Gusau (rtd)) asking the NPS to release Mustapha to the Apapa based Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) in Lagos. The DMI apparently wanted to question the Major about ''matters of national security." The CGP then directed that the request be honoured by NPS officials based in Lagos State where the KiriKiri Prison is located.

It seems logical to infer that what happened next was that Major Mustapha - who, among others, is standing trial for the February 1996 attempted murder of Guardian publisher Mr. Alex Ibru - was alerted to the request from Abuja by local NPS officials at KiriKiri and opted to fight it in open court. Curiously,  Mr. Olalekan Ojo, counsel to the Major, was reported to have "brought an application of interlocutory summons asking the court to issue an order restraining the comptroller of prisons, Lagos State Command, from giving effect to the directive of DMI to release Mustapha to the directorate." Note also the subtle twist of language. What began as a "request" from the NSA to the CGP, was now being described as a "directive" from the DMI. In court documents, the counsel was reported to have asked that "the directive by DMI to the controller of prisons to release him be declared illegal, invalid and ineffectual, and an order restraining DMI from removing or directing his removal from Kirikiri except by order of the court."

In response, the presiding judge of the Ibru case, ostensibly "ordered" that "all parties", namely the DMI, State Security Service (SSS), Police, and Comptroller of prisons, be put on notice and is said to have fixed Wednesday March 31st for arguments. However, he did not issue a specific temporary injunction restricting Mustapha to KiriKiri. Early on that appointed morning for arguments, however, according to one Frank Ezekweche, of J.B. Dawodu Chambers, (also a counsel to Mustapha) "armed uniformed operatives invaded Kirikiri ......at about 12:00 a.m. and kidnapped Mustapha." Ezekweche reportedly also told the court that there were about 200 ""armed uniformed operatives" involved. He also alleged that they "shot sporadically into the air" and that "some of the inmates and the prison officers attempted to prevent them from taking him away."

Another newspaper, Daily Trust, on the same day, apparently relying on information obtained in the "court premises" from Mr James Danbaba, Mustapha's fellow inmate and co-accused went further to specify that the Major "was whisked away from the prison to an unknown destination by operatives of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI)." Indeed, the newspaper went further to claim, (citing Danbaba) that "the security agencies that stormed the prison between two and three in the morning were made up of the navy, the DMI, the department of State Security Services (SSS) and the police all numbering about 200 men in 20 vehicles." To all of this was added the juicy detail that Mr Ibe Logher, deputy comptroller of Kirikiri prison, was arrested and his house searched. Putting two and two together, it appears then that Mr. Logher was among the "prison officers" Mr. Ezekweche was referring to that attempted to prevent the "armed uniformed operatives" from taking Mustapha away - against the directives of his bosses within the NPS.

The story gained even more sensation when a public statement issued by the family of the Major - and cited by the Trust - claimed that, 

"Information reaching us indicated that the gunmen arrived the prison at 11:00 pm yesterday (Tuesday) and attempted to abduct him. But they met stiff resistance from inmates and prison guards which resulted in a shootout which lasted up till 3 am when they eventually succeeded in gaining access to his cell, and shot him in the leg. Only Allah knows how many got killed or wounded in this process of abducting my brother....." 

The background was further laid for a perception that the Major was a victim of a complex con

spiracy when Alhaji Hadi Al-Mustapha, the family spokesperson, was quoted as saying that the family had received information to the effect that the Major and his family were to be eliminated via a cooked-up coup charge "in order to divert national and international attention from his unending detention and eventually isolate him from his fellow political detainees, and later have him killed either by poison or physical elimination." These were not the only newspapers to report on matters related to the issue at hand. With such insinuations inserted into the public consciousness, the next day, April 2nd, This Day newspapers reported in an account titled "Why Al-Mustapha Was Moved, By Prisons Service" that the Nigerian Prisons Service statement issued late on April 1st in response to early news accounts said that "Al-Mustapha was taken away from Kirikiri Maximum Prisons by operatives of the Directorate of Military Intelligence for interrogation over a matter it did not disclose." 

Interestingly, the NPS was at pains to explain that Mustapha is still in the "custody of the Nigeria Prisons Service" even though "taken away to where he is being interviewed by the DMI" because of his status as an active duty soldier. As was the case with other many other newspaper reporters, the This Day reporters concerned did not question how the prisoner could be in the custody of the NPS and at the same time be "taken away from Kirikiri Maximum Prisons by operatives of the Directorate of Military Intelligence." In fact what really happened - as we shall see later - was that the Major Mustapha was physically moved out of KiriKiri by NPS officers, transported in an NPS vehicle, and then delivered to the DMI. No soldiers were involved.

A Punch account published on the same day directly quoted the NPS as saying that "Al-Mustapha was invited for interview as a serving member of the Nigerian Army.......He remains in custody of the Nigerian Prisons Service and will be returned to Kirikiri Prison or any other designated place on completion of his interview by the Directorate of Military Intelligence." It was from the This Day account that the phrase "security breach" entered the discourse. According the newspaper,

"Al-Mustapha was alleged to have recently made a telephone call to President Olusegun Obasanjo's hotline during which he reportedly made some unguarded remarks on the state of the nation. Obasanjo was reported to have been taken aback by the security breach particularly from a detainee being tried for murder. This development was said to have informed why the President ordered an immediate investigation into how Al-Mustapha got Obasanjo's hotlines. Investigation carried out by security operatives was also said to have indicted the Ag. Controller of Kirikiri Prisons who was accused of relaxing the security around Al-Mustapha. Based on this fact, the controller too is said to have been invited for questioning by the DMI "and is still undergoing interrogation like Mustapha as at yesterday evening."

On the same day, The Independent newspaper, in an article titled "Al-Mustapha whisked to Abuja" also reported that "Mustapha was moved from Kirikiri by operatives of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI), with the approval of the prison authorities, for questioning over "matters of national security." The story went further to reveal, curiously, that the Internal Affairs Minister was only just going to be briefed, after-the-fact, by the CGP. To confirm that there may indeed have been a problem at KiriKiri, it also quoted Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Emmanuel Ighodalo, as saying that "A report was lodged at the Kirikiri police division that there was an attempted jail break and we quickly mobilised our men to prevent such a thing from happening...." However, Ighodalo claimed the Police was not involved in any shooting. But even Ighodalo's partial admission was denied by others. An account, on the same day, titled "Al-Mustapha has case to answer – Defence Hq" in the Punch quoted the CGP as saying:

"The attention of the Nigerian Prisons Service has been drawn to certain news broadcast in local and international media speculating a shoot-out and jailbreak in Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison, Lagos. This is untrue. There was no shoot-out or jailbreak at the Maximum Security Prison, Kirikiri or any of our prisons during the period."

Also, on the same day, the Guardian, in a story titled "IG, SSS deny role in Al-Mustapha's transfer" further contradicted Ighodalo. The paper quoted Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun as saying, "We were not in any way involved. What concerns the police with that [?] We are not prison officials. No, no!, the police have no hand in that....". It also quoted the Director of the State Security Service (SSS) in Lagos, Mr. Toyin Akande, as saying that "we are not aware of the incident...the Directorate of Military Intelligence is in the best position to comment on the issue since it is a military affair." The Guardian cited unnamed "sources at the DMI" as saying that "the operation on Wednesday morning was purely a military affair and in the interest of the nation." The same story explained that "Al-Mustapha would be brought back to the prison as soon as the DMI finishes with its investigations"

The orgy of denials, partial denials, statements and counter-statements continued. The same Punch newspaper story quoted above account cited Colonel Ganiyu Adewale, Director of Defence Information, as saying that

"I am not sure that they took him (Major Mustapha) in an unusual manner. He is there to answer questions concerning the military aspect of his offence. He is still under investigation; he is still being investigated. It is an ongoing process. If he was arrested by the military at all, he is to face military investigation for his involvement in the offence for which he is in court. (Italics mine) It is a normal process."

The Director of Defence Information went on to say, conceivably in response to the Vanguard "coup scare" headline mentioned earlier,

"I am confirming to you that as far as I’m concerned, I’m not aware of any coup attempt. I’m not aware of any officer that has been arrested for coup attempt. No officer was taken to any prison. I don’t know where those who published it got their information. As far as I’m concerned at the Directorate of Defence Information, Defence Headquarters, I’m not aware of any coup scare. It is not true."

But later, on the same Friday, April 2nd, the BBC, in an article titled "Nigeria probes 'security breach' " quoted Presidential spokeswoman Remi Oyo as saying that a "considerable" number of Nigerian military officers - including Major Hamza al-Mustapha - had been arrested following "serious breaches of security......". In the second paragraph of the story, the BBC claimed that she said the investigation followed "rumors of a coup plot". But the same BBC story then went on to say "She told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme that she could not reveal the nature of the alleged offences. "I am not at liberty to say what kind of allegations they are, we will leave that to the intelligence community which I do not belong to but what is important to say [is] that they are being investigated alongside civilian collaborators...." Further complicating the public's understanding of what actually transpired at KiriKiri, the BBC said "Mr al-Mustapha was seized from prison by police earlier this week and handed to military intelligence."

But the BBC did make the astute observation that "there is still no indication of who might have been conspiring against President Obasanjo or why." Like the Vanguard story of April 1, it also reflected on some potential fault lines in the polity, by stating, ".... there is a sense of unease in Nigeria. The president has not been able to stop a series of ethnic clashes in various parts of the country, or the vicious political infighting within his own party. And despite high oil prices, daily life is still difficult for Nigerians, including soldiers, who have been complaining about delays in receiving their pay."

For its part, the Agence France Presse (AFP), in a report titled "Nigeria probes military officers amid coup warnings" quoted Ms. Oyo as saying, ""It's true that the intelligence community -- national and military security agencies -- are investigating what looks like a serious breach of security on the part of some military officers and apparent civilian collaborators...." An Army Captain told the AFP reporter in Kano that "It's true that arrests have been made in military circles of officers accused of attempting to subvert the government, but military intelligence is keeping the issue very confidential....We don't know what this is leading to..." Separately, an unnamed Army General revealed that "most of those questioned were disgruntled elements without current commands and, while being potential troublemakers, were no threat to the government." Citing unconfirmed reports, the AFP also claimed, unguardedly in my view that "Some reports said that most of the officers under investigation are from the Hausa people, one of the three largest linguistic groups and the dominant culture in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north."   In closing, the AFP report also said President Obasanjo "was re-elected in April last year, in a poll which both Nigerian and international monitors said was marred by widespread ballot-rigging."

Meanwhile, the SSS issued a public statement from Kano saying (according to Vanguard),

"We are aware of the press statement issued by Hadi Mustapha that Hamza Al-Mustapha (Major), was abducted and shot in the leg in the early hours of 31st March, at the Kirikiri Maximum Prison, Lagos. "We want to state categorically that there is no iota of truth to the effect that Al-Mustapha was abducted and shot in the leg in the early hours of 31st March, 2004, at Kirikiri Maximum Prison and moved to an unknown destination. For the avoidance of doubts, Al-Mustapha is presently with the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI). He was specially conveyed by the prison officials in their vehicle for clarification of some security matters. It is, therefore, not true that he was abducted and shot, as it is being circulated.

Apparently "the presidency limited investigations to security breaches, (instead of coup) because of certain security signals or indices that neither Al-Mustapha nor Lt. Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi could command loyalty for a successful coup.......Another reason why Al-Mustapha or even General Bamaiyi cannot succeed is that, most of the present General Officers Commanding (GOCs) were allegedly maltreated during the Abacha era, by Al-Mustapha and for that reason alone, it is not within the realm of possibility. Another "source" was quoted as saying that "Moreover, Nigeria is not a Banana Republic, it is therefore absolutely impossible for an Army Major, that has been incarcerated for up to four years to mobilise support and loyalty to plan a coup, I repeat, it is impossible." Nevertheless, in a tantalizing oblique reference to the possibility of an internationalization of the inquiry, the report claims that "the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) may employ the services of other security agencies to track down suspected collaborators with Al-Mustapha, although these agencies have not been contacted."

©Nowa Omoigui