By Norm Dixon
Nigerian riot police killed at least seven people protesting against dictator General Sani Abacha on May 1 in the Oyo state capital of Ibadan. In the days following the shootings, prominent opposition politicians, including a former governor of Oyo state, have been rounded up.
More than 10,000 people in Ibadan responded to the call by the Joint Action Committee of Nigeria (JACON), a coalition of 26 pro-democracy groups, and the umbrella group United Action for Democracy to make May 1 a "day of action" against the dictatorship.
The main demands of the protests, which also took place in Lagos, were for the rejection of Abacha as the sole candidate in the August presidential referendum; that all political prisoners, including trade union leaders, be released immediately; and for the legalisation of all "organised bodies, including labour unions, student unions and professional associations".
JACON also called for jailed opposition leader Moshood Abiola to be released, his victory in the 1993 presidential contest to be recognised and for him to head a "government of national unity".
The overwhelmingly young demonstrators emerged from the densely populated poorer suburbs and laid siege to buildings and property owned by known supporters of the dictatorship.
The building housing the pro-government newspaper owned by Muslim leader Aresekola Alao, the Monitor, was burned down. Another target was politician Lamidi Adedibu, who organised a pro-Abacha rally on April 15 at which three anti-Abacha protesters were murdered by police.
In the days following May 1, soldiers and riot police set up roadblocks throughout Ibadan. Troops occupied the city centre and its major thoroughfares.
On May 4, security agents arrested 20 or so prominent opposition politicians in Ibadan. Former Oyo state governor Bola Ige, a member of the National Democratic Coalition; former state legislators Niyi Owolade and Lam Adesina; and Marxist scholar Ola Oni were among those arrested.
Abacha's brutal rule is becoming increasingly unpopular, even within the regime's highest echelons. On April 29, a military tribunal sentenced six senior military figures to death, including Abacha's former deputy, Lieutenant General Oladipo Diya, and two former ministers in the regime.
The six were caught in a sting operation in which senior military officers, wearing listening devices, proposed to the six that they join a plot to overthrow Abacha.