NIGERIA: PDP OFFICIAL MURDERED

C O N F I D E N T I A L LAGOS 000321

SIPDIS

PASS GURNEY, LONDON AND NEARY, PARIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/11/2008
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PHUM PINS PINR NI
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: PDP OFFICIAL MURDERED

REF: 2003 ABUJA 448

Classified By: Consul-General Robyn Hinson-Jones for reasons 1.5 (b) an

d (d).


1. (U) On February 6, unknown assailants killed Chief
Amino-Sari Dikibo, National Vice Chairman of the South-South
Zone of the People's Democratic Party (PDP),as he was
traveling to attend a Conference of South-South Governors in
Asaba, Delta State. Dikibo, who had a police escort and
driver, was reportedly shot once in the head after two cars
stopped in front of his convoy and turned around to pursue
him along the Kwale-Ogwashi-Uku road in northeastern Delta
State. Observers who viewed the body and vehicle said
Dikibo's skull was "shattered."


2. (U) In his monthly television address, President Olusegun
Obasanjo, a PDP member, said Dikibo was killed by "a band of
armed robbers," eleven of whom are now in police custody. A
press report indicates that Delta State highways experienced
a spate of armed robberies last year and that on the day of
Dikibo's death, armed gangs robbed several persons in the
area. The same report noted that the driver of Dikibo's
vehicle and escorting police officers were neither harmed in
the alleged robbery nor were they stained with blood,
although brain matter and blood stained the back seat of the
vehicle.


3. (U) Press commentators have noted the similarity between
Dikibo's murder and the political killing in March 2003 of
Marshall Harry, the National Vice Chairman for the
South-South Zone for the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP),
the most popular opposition party to the PDP in the region
(reftel). Before his death, Harry, a former PDP politician,
had repeatedly stated that he feared for his life. He
blamed his fears on Peter Odili, Governor of Rivers State,
who, Harry said, wanted him killed.


4. (U) To obtain further details on the murder, POLOFF spoke
with Delta State Attorney General (AG),A. A. Utuama February

9. Utuama confirmed that the National Police Force in Asaba
is investigating the incident. Utuama stated he had no
further information beyond that reported by the press and an
initial phone call from Delta State Governor James Ibori.
(Standard procedure calls for a written report to be
submitted to the AG after an investigation is complete, at
which time the AG may recommend prosecution.) Commissioner
of Police for Delta State Charles Akaya told POLOFF February
9 that he, too, could not discuss the case until he received
clearance from headquarters in Abuja.


5. (C) COMMENT: The reported circumstances of Dikibo's death
are not consistent with an armed robbery. None of his
possessions were taken and the description of the single
gunshot wound to his head implies he was shot at close range.
Armed robberies in Nigeria usually involve automatic and
semi-automatic weapons fired indiscriminately at victims. If
Dikibo's death is the result of a robbery, it is highly
unusual that a driver seated in the car with the victim
survived unscathed. The reported facts of the shooting
suggest an assassination.


6. (C) Motives for the possible assassination are unknown.
However, it is unusual that high-ranking members of his own
party, including the President, have so quickly dismissed his
murder as a bungled robbery. The relatively close timing of
the murder to the anniversary of the assassination of
Marshall Harry makes it difficult to simply dismiss Dikibo's
death on the grounds that he simply was a man in the wrong
place at the wrong time. Circumstances point to various
possibilities: a reprisal assassination by the ANPP avenging
Harry, a PDP insider acting alone, or a calculated move
within PDP. Dikibo may have been on the wrong side of
continuing feuds between the President and Vice President or
a feud between the President and the southern governors, one
of whom, James Ibori of Delta State, has been known to be
involved in the killing of rivals. END COMMENT.
HINSON-JONES