Second Republic politicians are detained and tried

In 1984, the Buhari military government launched a systematic campaign to prosecute politicians from Nigeria's Second Republic (1979-1983). Former governors, ministers, and National Assembly members were arrested and detained without trial for months. Special military tribunals, operating outside the normal court system, were established to try these officials on charges of corruption, mismanagement of public funds, and abuse of office. The trials proceeded without many of the legal protections typically available in civilian courts.

The detentions stemmed from widespread public anger over the massive corruption that had characterized the Second Republic under President Shehu Shagari. State governments had accumulated enormous debts, federal contracts were inflated beyond reason, and public resources were systematically looted by political elites. When Buhari seized power in December 1983, his regime justified the coup partly on the need to clean up this corruption and hold the previous leadership accountable for Nigeria's economic crisis.