Colonel jibrin bala yakubu biography
Jibril Bala Yakubu | |
---|---|
Governor of Zamfara State | |
In office 7 October – May | |
Preceded by | Rasheed Adisa Raji (Sokoto State) |
Succeeded by | Sani Yerima |
Lt.
Colonel (retired) Jibril Bala Yakubu was the first Administrator of Zamfara State after it was created from part of Sokoto State in October , holding office until the return to democracy in May during the military regimes of Generals Sani Abacha and Abdulsalami Abubakar.[1] As Zamfara administrator, Yakubu created five Emirates in the state and eleven new District Councils.[2] After handing over to the civilian governor Sani Yerima in May , as a former military administrator he was required to retire from the army.[3]
Yakubu was arrested and jailed based on a charge filed on 9 December that alleged that he conspired with four others in to assassinate Alex Ibru, the publisher of The Guardian newspaper.[4] As Commanding Officer of 29 Battalion, he allegedly supplied arms to killer squads who eliminated other opponents of General Sani Abacha.[5] In December a judge refused his request to stop the trial.[6] In April the Arewa Consultative Forum, a Northern lobby group, urged the Federal Government to release Yakubu Jibril on the basis of the spirit of national reconciliation recommended by the Oputa panel.[7]
Eventually, after 12 years of imprisonment, trials and retrials, Yakubu and his co-defendants were acquitted of most charges on 21 December [8] The co-defendants were former Chief Security Officer Hamza al-Mustapha, former Lagos State Police Commissioner James Danbaba and former head of the Aso Rock Anti-Riot Police Rabo Lawal.[9]
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The original article can be found at Jibril Yakubu and the edit history here.