Late general Sani Abacha during his totalitarian regime argued that the execution of 43 Nigerians convicted of being armed robbers by the Robbery and Firearms Tribunals he set up was a way to stamp out criminality in the country.
On Saturday, July 1995, the military under his leadership carried out one of the largest mass executions in Nigeria's history.
The army lined up the convicted prisoners at Kirikiri Maximum Security Prisons and executed them by firing squad.
Ten soldiers who carried out the execution were clad in camouflage clutching semi-automatic weapons.
READ ALSO: Autopsy reveals how 26 Nigerian female migrants died in Mediterranean Sea
The condemned men were tied to the stakes in three groups of 12 and one of seven and over 1,000 spectators were on ground to see them dispatched to their graves.
Human rights lawyers, international organizations and advocates raised were strongly against the executions, branding it as extra judicial killings since the tribunal judgments are final without allowing right of appeal but the regime pressed ahead with the execution.
International bodies like Amnesty International and others sent last-minute appeals directly to Abacha to commute the death sentences but he he refused to heed their pleas.
But Abacha insisted the executions were to crack down on violent crimes such as armed robbery.
Before the the execution, an Irish Roman Catholic priest and a Muslim imam offered the convicted criminals prayers and after they were gunned down by stern looking soldiers, three doctors certified them dead.
The late general was believed to have also carried out several executions during his tenure as the military head of state.
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigeria’s #1 news app
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that hundreds of millions of dollars stashed away by the military government of the late General Sani Abacha was claimed by the United States government.
Abubakar Malami who is the minister of justice and attorney-general of the federation made this revelation in a seminar organised by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).
The EFCC stage a walk against corruption - on NAIJ.com TV:
Source: Naija.ng
ROSY CREST
Thursday 16 November 2017