Niger: Ex-President Issoufou orchestrated my father’s removal – Bazoum’s daughter alleges

Hinder, the daughter of the ousted Nigerien President, Mohamed Bazoum, has said that her dad’s predecessor, Mahamadou Issoufou, was behind the military coup that deposed him nine months ago.




Recall that Bazoum and his wife have been under arrest in the presidential palace in Niamey since army officers seized power on July 26.




He was elected two years earlier, succeeding President Issoufou, in Niger’s first-ever peaceful transition since independence.




In an interview with the BBC monitored by DAILY POST, Hinder Bazoum made the allegation, saying that it has been six months since the Bazoum family heard about their parents and their condition.




“The hardest thing to accept was to discover that Mahamadou Issoufou was the mastermind who orchestrated everything out of egocentrism and to protect his interests.




“It is very painful for us to know that their oppressors are people we knew and with whom we had cordial relations.




“He, who was close to our parents for 33 years and saw us grow up… he, my father’s friend and brother, is betraying him in the most cowardly and cruel way.




“He is the one who toppled our father, he is the one who betrayed him. And we have evidence that Mohammadou Issoufou is the one preventing the junta from releasing our father,” she said.