A court in Nigeria’s commercial city of Lagos Thursday discharged and acquitted a former Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi, of murder charges, ending a nine-year detention. The Lagos High Court ruled that the prosecution failed to prove its case against the army general beyond a reasonable doubt. Bamaiyi was charged with attempted murder over the shooting of local newspaper publisher Alex Ibru and Isaac Porbeni, a prominent indigene of the oil-rich Delta state. The former Army chief, who served under the late dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha, had said he was framed for his failure to support the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo, a retired army general who ruled Nigeria from 1999 to 2007 Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapaha, former security chief to the late dictator Gen. Sani Abacha, and others are still standing trial over the attempt to kill Ibru. Panapress.
