US embassy cable - 03ABUJA448

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABUJA 000448 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/05/2013 
TAGS: PGOV, ASEC, KDEM, NI 
SUBJECT: NIGERIA:  LEADING OPPOSITION POLITICIAN KILLED 
 
 
Classified by Ambassador Howard F. Jeter.  Reasons:  1.5 (B & 
D). 
 
 
1.  (U)  Leading Nigerian opposition politician Marshall 
Harry was killed in the early morning hours of March 5. 
Marshall was a founding member of the ruling People's 
Democratic Party (PDP) but split from the group over 
disputes with President Olusegun Obasanjo and Rivers state 
Governor Peter Odili.  He was recently named the South- 
South Zonal Vice Chairman in the leading opposition party, 
the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP). 
 
 
2.  (C)  According to one of his aides, Harry arrived in 
Abuja March 5 from his home in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. 
That evening he held a meeting with someone from the Buhari 
presidential campaign organization.  Following this 
meeting, Marshall met with ANPP Chairman Don Etiebet. 
According to the aide, he made a phone call home between 
these two meetings and asked whether the police had arrived 
at his Port Harcourt office.  (NOTE:  It is possible that 
he expected to be detained over an attempted political 
rally in Port Harcourt which Odili had banned.  END NOTE.) 
Following his meeting with Etiebet, he had dinner with an 
unidentified politician.  (NOTE:  From the description of 
one journalist, this politician could be former PDP 
activist and leading member of the Arewa Consultative Forum 
Sunday Awoniyi.  END NOTE.) 
 
 
3.  (C)  Figures close to ANPP Presidential candidate 
Muhammadu Buhari assert that Harry's murder was politically 
motivated and imply that the ruling PDP had an interest in 
seeing Harry eliminated, but they stop short of naming 
names.  In April of last year, a lawyer claiming to 
represent Harry asserted that his client's life was in 
danger because of his opposition to Odili and sought police 
protection. 
 
 
4.  (C)  According to Harry's security guards, at least two 
men entered his compound at around 3:30 AM, attacked them 
and tied them up.  They then entered the house where they 
confronted Marshall and his daughter.  The daughter says 
that they offered the attackers money and jewelry to leave, 
but the men refused.  They shot Marshall twice in the 
abdomen and fled the house.  A photograph of the crime 
scene shows a spartan, linoleum-tiled bedroom with a 
massive bloodstain near the foot of the bed. 
 
 
5.  (C)  In a meeting with Ambassador and DCM the morning 
of the attack, State Security Service Director-General 
Lateef Kayode Are downplayed the political angle, 
contending that Harry died as the result of a bungled armed 
robbery.  Harry and Odili actually got along quite well, 
Are asserted, claiming that Harry was Odili's "mole" in the 
South-South ANPP. 
 
 
6.  (C)  COMMENT:  Press reports strongly suggest that 
Harry was targeted.  Assuming it was politically motivated, 
this is the most significant assassination since Justice 
Minister Bola Ige's murder in December, 2001.  Whether the 
attack was political or criminal, it will be viewed by the 
political opposition and many Nigerians as an attempt to 
stifle and frighten the opposition.  For their part, the 
government and ruling party have condemned the murder. 
This will not account for much unless the police are seen 
as actively pursuing Harry's killer, something that was not 
done in Ige's case.  With Buhari's presidential campaign 
due to open in Harry's home town of Port Harcourt on 
Saturday, the linkage will be inevitable and the event on 
Saturday perhaps has acquired extra significance due to 
this tragedy.  In any case, the murder of a Vice Chairman 
of the ANPP will increase political tensions and 
uncertainty in the run-up to a much-criticized and hotly- 
contested election process. 
JETER