Nigerian inquiry told bomb caused airliner crash

LAGOS, Nigeria (Reuters) -- The powerful chief of personal security to late Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha alleged Tuesday that a 1996 crash of a domestic airliner which killed 143 people was caused by a bomb.

Opposition activists and a lawyer for the security services poured scorn on the allegations however, insisting they were based on a forged report.

The airliner of Aviation Development Co crashed into marshlands near Lagos. A third of those killed were foreigners.

Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, the once-feared head of Abacha's personal security, told a human rights inquiry commission that the alleged bombing had been part of the strategy of Abacha's militant opponents to destabilize his government.

He named the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) which spearheaded opposition to Abacha's iron-fisted rule, mainly in southwestern Nigeria. Abacha died suddenly in June 1998, paving the way for the end of 15 years of military rule in 1999.

Mustapha said a report by Nigeria's State Security Services (SSS) showed that NADECO had planned a violent campaign code-named "Operation Swift." He linked the plan to a radical wing of NADECO headed by Nigerian Laureate Wole Soyinka, who was in exile at the height of Abacha's rule.

It involved "ensuring saturated bombardment of persons and installations in the southwest," Mustapha said. "Operation Swift effectively commenced on 7th November 1996 with the attempted hijack and eventual crashing" of the flight.

Soyinka's lawyer Femi Falana dismissed the alleged SSS report as a forgery and denied Soyinka's involvement.

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