Several Nigerian Leaders Arrested

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30978, 7 February 1966, Page 13

Several Nigerian Leaders Arrested

(N Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright) IBADAN (Western Nigeria), Feb. 6. Eleven leading members of the former Western Nigeria ruling party are being detained after an order today by the region’s military governor, Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Adekunle Fajuyi.

The eleven, among them several former Ministers, are charged with serious criminal offences in an order published in an extraordinary Gazette. A former Western region Deputy Premier, Chief Remi Fani-Kayode and a former Finance Minister, Oba (Kang) C. D. Akran are among the men detained.

They are all members of Chief Samuel /.kintola’s Nigerian National Democratic Party which ruled Western Nigeria until last month’s army take-over. Chief Akintola himself died during the uprising. The men were questioned here by police last week. According to the Gazette notice today, they are reasonably suspected of having committed serious criminal offences and it is necessary to prevent them from committing certain other crimi-

nal offences. The specific nature of the offences was not given. Chief Fani-Kayode, a Cambridge educated lawyer and one of the key figures in Western Nigeria's turbulent political history, announced his retirement from politics only today. In a public notice advertised in a local newspaper, he said he was returning to legal practice and had withdrawn from politics completely.