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In Niger, the former Minister of the Interior Cissé Ousmane Ibrahim was arrested and imprisoned on Friday April 8. He was accused of undermining state security in the failed coup attempt on March 31, 2021, two days before the inauguration of new President Mohamed Bazoum.
With our correspondent in Niamey, Moussa Kaka
Cissé Ousmane Ibrahim arrived under good escort on Friday evening at the civil prison of Birnin Ngaouré, located about a hundred kilometers from Niamey. By signing the warrant of committal, the investigating judge asks the prison guard to ” Cissé Police Commissioner Ousmane Ibrahim to be detained until otherwise ordered ».
From a judicial source, Cissé Ousmane Ibrahim is accused of conspiracy aimed at undermining the authority or the security of the State in the attempted coup d’état foiled on March 31, 2021, two days before the investiture of the new president Mohamed Bazoum. Articles 79 and 261 of the Code of Military Justice are cited.
He thus joins in prison Captain Sani Gourouza and Lieutenant Abdramane Mot who, on the night of March 31, 2021, had taken command of a group of soldiers to attack the presidential palace. According to well-informed sources, the plan for the attempted coup d’etat was set up from Ndjamena at the Nigerian embassy where a close friend of Minister Cissé was going. A plan reviewed and corrected in Niamey each time the diplomat returned to the country: take the presidential palace from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Corniche de Yantala down; overthrow President Issoufou Mahamadou and prevent the inauguration of the new elected President Mohamed Bazoum. In a few months, it is said, all will be judged at the military tribunal.
Cissé Ousmane Ibrahim was Minister of the Interior under the transition of General Salou Djibo who overthrew President Mamadou Tandja. He then became Niger’s ambassador to Chad, before being disembarked, heard by the courts and imprisoned.
According to several sources, it is above all the last attempt to destabilize the Niamey regime that would have thrown Ousmane Cissé into prison. While President Mohamed Bazoum was on a state visit to Turkey from March 9 to 13, for the purchase of military equipment worth nearly 200 billion CFA francs, the Intelligence Services thwarted a second coup attempt. State in Niamey.