06 Aug 2009
Nigeria has allowed a Ukrainian plane to continue its journey to Equatorial Guinea after it was held for weeks over a cargo of weaponry.

Authorities released the plane and its seven crew members on Tuesday, a Nigerian official and several military sources said on Wednesday.

Nigerian security officials had found the arms and ammunition on board the AN-12 cargo plane on June 17, while conducting a routine check of the aircraft, which had landed to refuel at Kano airport.

As part of a subsequent probe, crew members were detained and questioned in the capital Abuja.

They were, however, released on Tuesday as authorities apparently established that the cargo was not intended for Nigeria.

"We were asked by Abuja to release the aircraft and that we have done. They left here by 2.30 pm (1330 GMT) yesterday," Reuters quoted a top official at Kano airport a saying on condition of anonymity.

The plane, owned by the Ukrainian company Meridian, had departed from the Croatian capital, Zagreb, carrying what is now believed to be an arms shipment ordered by the government of Equatorial Guinea.

One of Africa's largest oil producers and a popular attraction for US oil companies, Equatorial Guinea has experienced decades of instability and numerous coup attempts.

Back in 2004, foreign mercenaries, led by former British special forces officer, Simon Mann, conducted an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Equatorial Guinean president Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

In the court preceding that followed, Mann accused Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, of being one of the five-men responsible for the 2004 plot.

Thatcher, however, denied any involvement in the coup attempt, which, according to Mann's confessions, was orchestrated by Spain and South Africa.

In a more recent incident, gunmen on motorboats attacked the presidential palace in the capital, Malabo, on February 17.

The failed attack led to the dismissal of several ministers by Nguema, who himself faces accusations of human rights abuse and political oppression.

Nguema came to power in 1979 after overthrowing the Spanish-backed government of Francisco Macias.