Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
03ABUJA448
2003-03-06 16:40:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Abuja
Cable title:  

NIGERIA: LEADING OPPOSITION POLITICIAN KILLED

Tags:  PGOV ASEC KDEM NI 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L ABUJA 000448 

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/05/2013
TAGS: PGOV ASEC KDEM NI
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: LEADING OPPOSITION POLITICIAN KILLED


Classified by Ambassador Howard F. Jeter. Reasons: 1.5 (B &
D).


C O N F I D E N T I A L ABUJA 000448

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/05/2013
TAGS: PGOV ASEC KDEM NI
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: LEADING OPPOSITION POLITICIAN KILLED


Classified by Ambassador Howard F. Jeter. Reasons: 1.5 (B &
D).



1. (U) Leading Nigerian opposition politician Marshall
Harry was killed in the early morning hours of March 5.
Marshall was a founding member of the ruling People's
Democratic Party (PDP) but split from the group over
disputes with President Olusegun Obasanjo and Rivers state
Governor Peter Odili. He was recently named the South-
South Zonal Vice Chairman in the leading opposition party,
the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP).



2. (C) According to one of his aides, Harry arrived in
Abuja March 5 from his home in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
That evening he held a meeting with someone from the Buhari
presidential campaign organization. Following this
meeting, Marshall met with ANPP Chairman Don Etiebet.
According to the aide, he made a phone call home between
these two meetings and asked whether the police had arrived
at his Port Harcourt office. (NOTE: It is possible that
he expected to be detained over an attempted political
rally in Port Harcourt which Odili had banned. END NOTE.)
Following his meeting with Etiebet, he had dinner with an
unidentified politician. (NOTE: From the description of
one journalist, this politician could be former PDP
activist and leading member of the Arewa Consultative Forum
Sunday Awoniyi. END NOTE.)



3. (C) Figures close to ANPP Presidential candidate
Muhammadu Buhari assert that Harry's murder was politically
motivated and imply that the ruling PDP had an interest in
seeing Harry eliminated, but they stop short of naming
names. In April of last year, a lawyer claiming to
represent Harry asserted that his client's life was in
danger because of his opposition to Odili and sought police
protection.



4. (C) According to Harry's security guards, at least two
men entered his compound at around 3:30 AM, attacked them
and tied them up. They then entered the house where they
confronted Marshall and his daughter. The daughter says
that they offered the attackers money and jewelry to leave,
but the men refused. They shot Marshall twice in the
abdomen and fled the house. A photograph of the crime
scene shows a spartan, linoleum-tiled bedroom with a
massive bloodstain near the foot of the bed.



5. (C) In a meeting with Ambassador and DCM the morning
of the attack, State Security Service Director-General
Lateef Kayode Are downplayed the political angle,
contending that Harry died as the result of a bungled armed
robbery. Harry and Odili actually got along quite well,
Are asserted, claiming that Harry was Odili's "mole" in the
South-South ANPP.



6. (C) COMMENT: Press reports strongly suggest that
Harry was targeted. Assuming it was politically motivated,
this is the most significant assassination since Justice
Minister Bola Ige's murder in December, 2001. Whether the
attack was political or criminal, it will be viewed by the
political opposition and many Nigerians as an attempt to
stifle and frighten the opposition. For their part, the
government and ruling party have condemned the murder.
This will not account for much unless the police are seen
as actively pursuing Harry's killer, something that was not
done in Ige's case. With Buhari's presidential campaign
due to open in Harry's home town of Port Harcourt on
Saturday, the linkage will be inevitable and the event on
Saturday perhaps has acquired extra significance due to
this tragedy. In any case, the murder of a Vice Chairman
of the ANPP will increase political tensions and
uncertainty in the run-up to a much-criticized and hotly-
contested election process.
JETER