As a "gesture of goodwill" Nigeria's military ruling council has commuted to long prison terms six death sentences passed in connection with a plot to topple the late dictator, Sani Abacha.
Meanwhile outbreaks of violence erupted in Lagos yesterday but the unrest sparked by the death of Nigeria's opposition leader, Chief Moshood Abiola, has largely given way to a tense calm.
The ruling council said Abacha's former deputy, LieutGen Oladipo Diya, and two of the other convicted plotters had had their sentences cut to 25 years in prison, while three more death sentences were commuted to 20year terms.
An international team of pathologists arrived in Nigeria last night and it is expected that the body of Chief Abiola will be flown from the capital, Abuja, to Lagos where an autopsy will take place today. The British High Commission clinic in Lagos has been offered as a venue.
"There has been some concern at the high expectations being raised among the public," a British High Commission spokesman said yesterday. "The testing of samples from the autopsy could take some time."
The outcome of the autopsy will be crucial in determining whether Africa's most populous nation moves towards a peaceful future or slides into the kind of violent chaos of which this week's unrest was perhaps only an intimation.
While the more reasonable of Chief Abiola's supporters might accept the official explanation that he died of a heart attack, few can doubt that he would still be alive had he not been kept in detention for four years.
Chief Abiola is due to be buried either in the grounds of his Lagos villa or in his home town of Abeokuta this weekend. The event promises to provide a rallying point for his supporters.
Yesterday, the head of state, Gen Abdusalam Abubakar, presided over a second successive session of his ruling military council to discuss a plan to restore civilian rule and review the cases of remaining political prisoners.
Afterwards a statement said its "gesture of goodwill [in reducing sentences] is to facilitate the ongoing reconciliation process in the country and in response to the passionate pleas for mercy made by religious leaders, traditional rulers, other Nigerians, world leaders and members of the international community." The six were sentenced in April by a military tribunal following a plot to topple Abacha in December 1997. Those sentenced to death were from the same southwestern region as Abiola.
The statement said 10 other people sentenced for lesser roles in the plot had also had their sentences reduced. Among them was journalist Niran Malaolu, whose sentence was reduced from life imprisonment to 15 years.
The family of Chief Abiola yesterday appealed for calm. "The greatest honour we can do him in death is to embrace peace. It is only then that he will not have died in vain," Abiola's first son, Mr Kola Abiola, said in a statement on behalf of the family.