Former Nigerian military ruler General Ibrahim Babangida said Sunday that fears for his personal safety are behind his decision not to appear before a human rights violations panel here.
"He has reasonable grounds to suspect that the environment that is likely to be generated at the venue (of the panel sitting) may not be conducive to his personal safety," his lawyer, Rotimi Williams, said in a statement.
Babangida, who ruled from 1985 to 1993, has so far refused to appear before the panel and has obtained a court order restraining the body from compelling him to attend any hearings.
Lagos human rights lawyer Gani Fawehinmi has filed a petition before the panel, accusing Babangida's regime of being responsible for the murder of journalist Dele Giwa in 1986 by means of a parcel bomb.
Following the complaint, the panel summoned Babangida to appear before it to answer the charges.
The panel heard the case last week but Babangida was absent.
"He also reasonably entertained the fear that there is likely to be unwarranted assault on his personal dignity ... from certain quarters hostile to him," the lawyer's statement said.
The human rights panel was set up last year by President Olusegun Obasanjo to investigate rights violation since 1966 when the military first staged a coup.
At Saturday's hearing of the panel, a close security aide to Lieutenant General Oladipo Diya, the number two to former ruler General Sani Abacha, said that Diya had planned to overthrow his boss.
Major Seun Fadipe said that Diya, contrary to his denial before the panel, actually funded the coup.
A special military tribunal convicted Diya and Fadipe and sentenced them to death over the December 1997 rebellion. Their sentences were later commuted, and they were released from jail last year.
The panel, which began its hearings in Abuja, ends its five-week Lagos sitting this weekend, and will move to other centers next month -- LAGOS (AFP)
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