Government dissolved after Abiola8217;s death

The announcement came less than 24 hours after the death of Abiola which sparked rioting in Lagos, Abeokuta and other cities in the south of the countries killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens.

Abiola, the presumed winneer of the annulled 1993 election who was jailed in 1994, died yesterday of an apparent heart attack while in a meeting with US and Nigerian officials as preparations were being made for his release.Military regimes have ruled Nigeria for all but 10 years of the 38 years since indenpendence from Britain in 1960.

Meanwhile, reports from Cairo said At least 14 people were killed and scores injured inNigeria8217;s commercial capital Lagos in riots and police firing triggered by the death of Abiola, believed to have won the 1993 elections, according to reports reaching here.

Police opened fire to quell rioters protesting Abiola8217;s death and people stayed away from work apparently fearful of more violence, reports sad.Mobs of hundred of youths took to the streets in Aqeqe, Ikeja and Mushin districts chanting that Abiola, 60, from the southwest near Lagos, had been murdered and calling for revenge against people from the country8217;s north, home to most of Nigeria8217;s military rulers.

A presidential announcement said Abiola collapsed and died of cardiac arrest during a meeting with US and nigerian officials to discuss conditions for his release from prison.

News of his death sparked violence among angry residents of southern region yesterday when hundreds of people attacked cars and smashed shops belonging to people from northern region, the area where most of the military generals hail from.

The US, whoseenvoy Under-Secretary of State Thomas Pickering was with Abiola when he collapsed, said it had no reason to suspect that the death was caused by anything but natural causes.

Abiola was detained in 1994 by late dictator Sunny Abacha for declaring himself president on the basis of 1993 elections which were annulled by the military.

Though reports said Abiola died of heart attack, the government of Gen. Abubaker, who succeeded abacha, immediately ordered a post-mortem to ascertain the cause of death.

Abiola8217;s sudden death came on the eve of an announcement of a new plan to bring much desired democracy to Africa8217;s most populous nation, which saw in Abiola a means of achieving this since the annulment of 1993 elections which Abiola was all set to win.

His release had been widely anticipated after United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan suggested he had agreed to drop his presidential claim.

Unlikely champion of democracy

ABUJA: Moshood Abiola was a businessman with modest roots who became anunlikely champion of Nigerian democracy.

During abiola8217;s detention, the business interests that made him one of Africa8217;s richest men crumbled and in 1996, his senior wife Kudirat, who had campaigned for his release, was assassinated by unknown gunmen in Lagos.

Abiola, 60, was a prominent Muslim from the largely Christian southwest of religiously and ethnically divided Nigeria.

The annulment of the June 12, 1993 polls in which Abiola was set to become Nigeria8217;s first elected president in a decade, made him a cause celebre of a pro-democracy movement opposed to the army8217;s manipulated return-to-civil-rule programme.

But Abiola, who had long nursed presidential ambitions, owed his candidacy to his good connections with the military particularly once-good friend president Ibrahim Babangida.

It was only after General Babangida banned 23 presidential hopefuls in two army-created political parties, that Abiola joined the Social Democratic Party 8212; now scrapped 8212; and made a bid for its ticket.

Abiola8217;scritics said he was an improbable Social Democrat having been a top member of the right-wing ruling party in the 1979-83 civilian republic.