H. E. General Sani Abacha
Chairman of the Provisional Ruling Council
and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces
State House
Abuja
Nigeria

Vienna, 2 August 1995

Your Excellency,

The International Press Institute (IPI) is most concerned about the case of two Nigerian magazine editors who have been reportedly sentenced to life in prison by a military tribunal for running stories about an alleged coup attempt in March.

We understand that on Saturday, 29 July 1995, Kunle Ajibade and George Mbah, both editors of the weekly Tell, were convicted by a special military tribunal for publishing stories related to the coup plot. The government has not confirmed these convictions.

IPI is informed that 40 people, including at least two other journalists, were already sentenced on 14 July in the secret coup plot trials conducted by the tribunal, which began sitting on 5 June after Your Excellency’s government said it discovered a plot on 1 March. The two journalists, Chris Anyanwu, editor-in-chief of the weekly Sunday Magazine, and Ben Charles Obi, editor-in-chief of the weekly news magazine Weekend Classique, were reportedly both sentenced to life in prison.

We understand that Messrs Ajibade and Mbah are among a new group of coup suspects arraigned before the military tribunal and that more people, especially journalists and members of the human rights community, may still be on a list of those to be arrested and tried.

IPI, a global network of editors and media executives from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies, condemns the tribunal’s proceedings, which are reported to fall far short of minimum international standards of due process. We therefore strongly urge that Kunle Ajibade, George Mbah, Chris Anyanwu and Ben Charles Obi, as well as any other journalists currently being detained for expressing their opinions, are released immediately and unconditionally.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director