The defendants were secretly tried by a Special Military Tribunal headed by a member of the military government. They were denied practically all rights of defence, and state witnesses were reportedly tortured into testifying against Generals Obasanjo and Yar'Adua, whose political influence the government feared. They were accused of plotting to overthrow the government although no convincing evidence of such a plot has ever been produced. Shehu Musa Yar'Adua was one of 14 defendants who were sentenced to death by the Tribunal in July 1995. His sentence was later commuted to 25 years' imprisonment by the head of state, General Sani Abacha.
Medical facilities are non-existent at most prisons and very poor at many hospitals in Nigeria.
Enugu Prison is more than 650 kilometres from Shehu Musa Yar'Adua's home in Kaduna, northern Nigeria. Earlier in 1997, his family reported that his conditions of detention were harsh and that he had been made to do menial work in the prison in an attempt to break his spirit. Amnesty International is calling on the government to ensure all political prisoners be held in conditions which conform to international standards for the treatment of prisoners, that they are given appropriate medical care and immediate access to doctors of their own choice, as well as full access to their lawyers. He and other politicians were arrested in December 1991 and detained for more than a month during state governorship elections. His Kaduna-based newspaper, The Reporter , was proscribed and its editor detained for two weeks in March 1993 after it criticized the government.