
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 20, 1993                   TAG: 9311200062
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LAGOS, NIGERIA                                LENGTH: Medium

MILITARY SWEEPS AWAY DEMOCRACY'S REMAINS

Military commanders began taking over from elected civilian governors Friday as Nigeria's new dictator followed through on his decision to sweep away all traces of democracy.

Gen. Sani Abacha, who ousted the civilian government of Ernest Shonekan on Wednesday, announced the next day that he was dissolving the 30 state governments, the federal legislature and all local councils.

That effectively dismantled nearly a decade of progress toward a system of elected government made under former dictator Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, who resigned in August after installing Shonekan.

Army brigade commanders began moving into government offices in several cities, including Lagos, the commercial capital, and Port Harcourt, the petroleum capital.

State-run Radio Nigeria reported without elaboration that a shakeup in the military was under way and that Abacha "would not brook any nonsense."

Abacha, 50, a U.S.-trained soldier who helped lead military coups in 1983 and 1985, also banned all political activity. He said he was running the country as head of a military council and would organize a constitutional conference in the future to come up with a new system of democracy.

Nigerians were shocked by the moves.

"We did not expect destruction of this magnitude of the democratic structures," said Albert Legogie, deputy president of the now-defunct Senate.

The Campaign for Democracy, a coalition of human rights, trade unions and social groups, called for tough international sanctions.

"Gen. Abacha's continuation of the war against democracy, which the military has been waging for 33 years, shows him off as a persistent and committed traitor to the nation," said one of its members, Civil Liberties Organization director Olisa Agbakoba.

Campaign spokesman Shina Loremikan said police clashed with unarmed protesters in southwestern Akure and Abeokuta and several parts of Lagos.

Dozens of students were arrested and some were charged in a Lagos magistrate's court with rioting and possessing subversive material belonging to the Campaign for Democracy, he said.

by CNB