Niger nabs 9 senior officers over alleged 'coup plot'
Nine military officers in the West African state of Niger have been detained on allegations of plotting a coup against the government and will face a military court, the country’s interior minister says.
Hassoumi Massaoudou further stated in a Saturday news conference in the capital Niamey that the suspects were taken into custody earlier this week after what he described as a month-long surveillance operation, AFP reported.
The Nigerien minister added that the coup plot had been thwarted "thanks to the loyalty" of a number of soldiers "who regularly kept us informed of the plan's progress."
According to the report, the announcement came after the country’s opposition figures challenged the government to offer proof of the alleged plot.
Massaoudou said the suspected coup plot was set to be carried out on December 18, when President Mahamadou Issoufou was due to return to Niamey from an Independence Day celebrations elsewhere in the country.
The development came just weeks prior to the nation’s scheduled presidential and parliamentary elections, in which the 63-year-old president plans to seek a second term.
This is while Issoufou announced in a televised address to the nation on Thursday that most of the key suspects involved in the alleged plot were already in custody.
The opposition, however, quickly rejected the claim, insisting that the president had offered “no proof” and accusing the government of efforts to manipulate the nation’s political atmosphere ahead of the February 21 polls.
According to the interior minister, among those detained in connection with the coup plot were air force General Souleymane Salou, commander of Niamey’s air force base, Lieutenant Colonel Idi Abdou Dan Haoua, and chief of the 1st Artillery Battalion in the western town of Tillaberi, Nare Maidoka, in addition to two senior officers with the elite anti-terror units.
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