APA-Niamey (Niger) A former head of state in Niger has spoken out through his lawyer to deny accusations made by the expelled French ambassador about his alleged involvement in the 26 July 2023 coup.
Mahamadou Issoufou felt he had been defamed by Sylvain Itté, the then French ambassador to Niger.
Interviewed on 29 November by the French parliament’s national defence and armed forces committee, two months after his expulsion by the new military authorities, headed by General Abdourahamane Tiani, head of the Praetorian Guard under the two former presidents, the diplomat explained that President Issoufou (2011-2021)
had played a “shadowy role” in the overthrow of his successor, Mohamed Bazoum.
“This coup was due to a factor that no one could have imagined: the direct involvement of former President Issoufou, who can safely be said to have instigated or at the very least accompanied the coup against his successor,” said Mr. Itté in the minutes of a “hearing held behind closed doors” on 29 November 2023, finally published on the website of the French National Assembly.
In it, the diplomat stressed that the putsch was motivated by conflicts of interest linked to trafficking in Nigerien oil within the presidential party, the PNDS-Tarayya, created by Mr. Bazoum with Mr. Issoufou. “On the day of the coup, a council of ministers was due to be held to create a new oil company in which the Nigerien government would have had a majority stake, and President Bazoum refused to allow the managing director to be the person proposed to him by the oil minister, who was none other than Issoufou’s son (Sani Mahamadou Issoufou, former oil minister),” he recounts in remarks that quickly drew a response from the former Nigerien president’s defence
attorney.
In a denial made public in Niamey on Wednesday 21 February, his lawyer Illo Issoufou attempted to dismantle point by point Sylvain Itté’s accusations, which he described as a “tissue of slander,” asserting that “former President Issoufou is neither closely nor remotely associated with the coup of 26 July 2023.”
He believes that the claim that he is in collusion with the current head of the junta is “gratuitous” and “is simply aimed at infantilising General Tiani and in no way accounts for his involvement in the coup.”
“Worse still, Mr. Sylvain Itté knowingly fails to inform the Commission that Issoufou’s son is currently in prison, which undoubtedly constitutes a double punishment for him,” stressed the defence of the former Nigerien president, who “has decided to lodge a complaint to ensure that justice is served” in view of “the seriousness of the facts alleged” by the French diplomat.
ODL/ac/fss/as/APA