A daughter of deposed Niger’s president Mohamed Bazoum on Friday accused his predecessor of being the “mastermind” behind the military coup that toppled her father nine months ago.
Bazoum and his wife have been under arrest in the presidential palace in Niamey since army officers seized power on July 26.
He had been elected two years earlier, succeeding president Mahamadou Issoufou, in Niger’s first-ever peaceful transition since independence.
“The hardest thing to accept was to discover that Mahamadou Issoufou was the mastermind who orchestrated everything out of egocentrism and to protect his personal interests,” Bazoum’s daughter Hinda Bazoum wrote in an article for Nigerien newspaper L’Autre Republicain.
“The coup would enable him to return to power after a short military transition during which a new constitution would be adopted,” she claimed.
Junta chief General Abdourahamane Tiani is a staunch ally and reputed confidant of Issoufou.
Bazoum had been…
Source: Vanguard Newspaper
