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Why crash victim Kuteyi got no help NEWS – Page 5
•Villagers ‘afraid of arrest’
Boko Haram: No bail for suspected killer-cop NEWS – Page 2
•Judge accuses police of hiding facts http://www.thenationonlineng.net
VOL. 7, NO. 1840 TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2011
TR UTH IN DEFENCE OF FREEDOM TRUTH
N150.00
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My incarceration was as a result of a script written and acted out by former Head of State Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar to further keep me in prison. The first relates to events that happened after the murder of General Sani Abacha and the late Chief MKO Abiola. For fear that I may divulge information that led to their death, they have to keep me in prison till date ... After the death of Abacha, so much happened within three days and the country was without a President or Vice President. The then Vice President, Lt.-Gen. Oladipo Diya, was imprisoned for staging a coup. Many senior officers wanted to become Head of State, but God gave me the wisdom and I assisted General Abubakar to become President ...
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How Abiola, Abacha were killed, by al-Mustapha Ex-Security chief says he has video evidence
Jonathan: fuel subsidy is drain on economy
By Eric Ikhilae, Judicial Correspondent
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USINESSMAN Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, was murdered, Major Hamza al-Mustapha said yesterday. The former security chief’s statement is contrary to the claim that Abiola’s death in custody on July 7, 1998 was natural. The late Abiola was incarcerated after he declared himself president on the strength of the election’s results. Gen. Ibrahim Babangida’s regime cancelled the election. Gen. Babangida, who was forced out of power in August 1993, handed over to an interim government led by Chief Ernest Shonekan, who was toppled by the late Gen. Sani Abacha in November, 1993. The late Gen. Abacha who detained Abiola, ran an iron-fist regime, until he died in office in June, 1998. Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar took over. Under his watch, Abiola died. Major al-Mustapha, former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to the late Gen. Abacha, has been detained since 1998. He has been undergoing trial at a Lagos High Court over the murder of the late Abiola’s wife, Kudirat. Mustapha also alleged that Gen. Abacha was murdered. Major al-Mustapha accused Gen. Abubakar of complicity in the murder, saying Gen. Abubakar was afraid he could reveal what actually transpired. He said the actual plot was to kill Abiola, the same day Abacha died, but for alContinued on page 2
From John Ofikhenua, Abuja
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HE days of petroleum subsidy are over, going by President Goodluck Jonathan’s declaration yesterday. The President has joined the clamour for the removal of subsidy on petroleum products, saying the government loses resources through its continued regulation of the products. Besides, he said the high cost of oil subsidies has limited the government’s ability to create the enabling environment for private sector investment in Nigeria’s downstream petroleum industry. But Dr Jonathan did not say how much the subsidy, which critics insist does not exist, cost. Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke spoke on his behalf at the opening of the 35th edition of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Annual International Conference and Exhibition (NAICE) in Abuja. Governors and petroleum marketers have been agitating for the removal of petroleum subsidies to free cash for infrastructural development and pay the N18,000 minimum wage. •Mustapha
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•MARITIME P13 •POLITICS P17 •SPORTS P23 •PROPERTY P25 •ENERGY P37