Niger’s authorities have arrested nine military officers for planning a coup, the interior ministry said on Saturday, taking the number of those arrested to more than double the figure reported earlier this week.
President Mahamadou Issoufou said in a televised address on Thursday that the alleged coup-plotters had planned to use aerial firepower and had prevented the movement of military assets from the capital Niamey to the southern region of Diffa.
President Issoufou was elected in 2011, a year after a coup, and is running for a second term in polls scheduled for February 21.
Political tension is already high in the country, with critics reportedly accusing Issoufou of repression and expressing doubts about the latest claims.
“Nine officers identified as responsible for the attempted coup have been arrested and will be presented before a military court,” Hassoumi Massaoudou, Niger’s interior minister, told reporters.
Massaoudou said a second-lieutenant who had fled turned himself in to gendarmes.
Military sources and family members initially said that four officials had been arrested, including the former military chief of staff, General Souleymane Salou, and Lieutenant-Colonel Dan Haoua, who headed Niamey’s air force base.
Political opponents have however said they do not believe the government’s claims.
“We don’t see any evidence of the attempted coup,” said opposition leader Amadou Boubacar Cisse. “Rather, he (Issoufou) has created a lot of problems around the election and has taken fraudulent actions with the electoral list.”
In December the government announced it would audit its voter register before the presidential election after demands lodged by opposition parties.
