GET LALONG, LITTLE DOGIES: PLATEAU SPEAKER

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABUJA 001318

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/29/2014
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KDEM NI
SUBJECT: GET LALONG, LITTLE DOGIES: PLATEAU SPEAKER
"WANTED" BY POLICE

REF: A. ABUJA 1279 AND PREVIOUS


B. ABUJA 1277

Classified By: ACTING POLITICAL COUNSELOR RUSSELL J. HANKS FOR REASONS
1.5 (B) AND (D)


1. (C) Summary. On July 26, the Plateau State police
commissioner declared that suspended Plateau State Assembly
Speaker Simon B. Lalong was wanted for interrogation.
Lalong, on a trip to London for medical treatment, returned
to Nigeria on July 28, where he told Poloffs that he expected
to be "detained" indefinitely in order to stop the lawsuit
against the Assembly's suspension from going forward. End
summary.


2. (C) Poloffs met with suspended Plateau State Assembly
Speaker Simon B. Lalong on July 28, shortly after his abrupt
return from a medical trip to London, in his room in an
out-of-the-way, very-low-budget Abuja motel. Lalong told
Poloffs that he had just arrived in Abuja that morning and
was keeping a low profile while waiting for his legal team to
arrive from Jos. He had cut his trip short when friends in
Nigeria e-mailed him to tell him that police announced he was
wanted.


3. (U) On July 26, the Plateau State police commissioner had
declared that Lalong was wanted for interrogation. The
commissioner's remarks were cryptic: "I can't tell you what
I want to see him for. If I do, I am letting the cat out of
the bag." Media reports linked the commissioner's comments
with the alleged killings of eight people in Yelwa-Shendam,
site of the May 2004 communal violence that claimed hundreds
of lives (reftel A). Lalong is a native of nearby Shendam.


4. (C) Lalong told Poloffs that the police announcement was
a ploy by Plateau State Sole Administrator M. Chris Alli to
derail two lawsuits, one before the Supreme Court, the other
before the Abuja High Court (reftel B). The Abuja High Court
case is scheduled to be heard July 29. Both suits were filed
by the suspended members of the Plateau State Assembly to
contest their suspension under the State of Emergency (SOE).
Lalong speculated that if he were imprisoned or killed,
enough other Assembly members would withdraw from the
lawsuits for them to be dropped. He said there was no reason
for the police commissioner to make a public announcement
that Lalong's whereabouts were unknown, since his police
surveillance detail had followed him to the airport the
previous week, and "everyone" knew he was going to London for
medical treatment.


5. (C) Lalong said he feared for his safety, which is why he
was keeping a low profile in the Abuja motel until his
lawyers arrived in Abuja from Jos. He promised to request
that his legal team keep Poloff updated of his status. Post
will continue to monitor and report.


6. (C) Comment. The SOE has not been a political failure
for President Obasanjo so far, but if the Assembly's legal
challenges succeed, he may lose his grip on Plateau State
politics. Both the President and Alli have an incentive for
helping the lawsuits disappear, possibly by making Lalong
disappear. If Lalong is detained, regular Embassy inquiries
about his status may be--literally--a lifeline for him. End
Comment.
CAMPBELL