 His associates from Oujda now became the pillar of his regime, but as Boumédiène tightened his grip on power, most of the clan's members were gradually purged.Still, a more generally defined "old guard", including some of the Oujda men, would continue to exercise influence after Boumédiène's death in 1978, over his successor Chadli Bendjedid.Bendjedid consciously strove to marginalise these men, and to replace them with his own loyalists.