NIGERIA

Reports on Ethnic Relations  /  Rapports sur les relations éthniques

The following section is consisted of part, full or summaries of articles from diverses sources (newspapers, newsletters, etc...).
La section suivante est constituée d'exraits, de la totalité ou de résumés d'articles provenant d'origines diverses (journaux,bulletins, etc..).

02 / 26 / 2004

"48 killed in religious violence in Plateau State"

At least 48 people were killed when suspected Islamic militants, armed with automatic rifles and bows and arrows, attacked a mainly Christian community in Plateau State in central Nigeria earlier this week, police said.
Innocent Ilozuoke, the police commissioner of Plateau State, said the attack took place in the town of Yelwa on Tuesday night. Many residents fled to a church compound and it was there that most of the victims were killed, he added.
We have counted a total of 48 people killed during the attack, Ilozuoke said.
The police commissioner said extra police and soldiers had been sent to Yelwa which has seen a resurgence of hostilities between Christians and Muslims in recent weeks.
Residents of Yelwa said the attack was apparently carried out in retaliation for a Christian raid on a nearby Muslim village last week which left more than 10 people dead.
Police officers have also been targeted by the militants.
The Nigerian police force said four of its officers were killed two days after the christian attack on Wase district when their patrol car was ambushed by suspected to be Muslim gunmen.
Plateau state has suffered intermittent clashes between the two religious communities for several years. In September 2001 more than 1,000 people were killed during a week of sectarian violence in the state capital Jos.
Ethnic and religious violence in Nigeria is not restricted to Plateau State.
Squabbles over benefits associated with the oil industry in the Niger Delta regularly lead to dozens of people being killed in ethnic clashes.
In northern Nigeria, the adoption of strict Islamic or Sharia Law by 12 mainly Muslim states has heightened Christian/Muslim tensions and led to much larger scale confrontations.
Tens of thousands of people have died in ethnic and religious clashes in Nigeria since President Olusegun Obasanjo s came to power in elections in 1999, ending 15 years of military rule.

02 / 20 / 2004

VANGUARD, Nigeria

"Group asks Delta Government to facilitate peace between Obontie and Ugbukurusu"

An appeal has been made to the Delta State Government to facilitate the peace process between the people of Obontie and Ugbukurusu by creating an enabling environment to resettle the people and rebuild their communities. Making the appeal, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Obontie Progressive Union (OPU), Mr. Omagbulijo Ololo said people in Obontie "have maternal or paternal relationship with Okpes and therefore, should be treated as such."
He said that natives of Obontie "acknowledged the magnanimity and understanding demonstrated by Okpe Leaders of Thought and their Itsekiri counterparts for their peace efforts in order to sustain the age-long brotherly relationship between the Okpe and Itsekiri."
He said now that the government is embarking on the resettlement of Ugbukurusu people and rebuilding the community, the same gesture should be extended to the people of Obontie for justice and fair play," insisting that both warring groups should be treated equally.
Ololo specifically appealed to the Delta State Commissioner for Special Duties to, as a matter of serious concern, pay a visit to Obontie community to see for himself the level of destruction in the commuinity. His words: "The Delta State Commissioner for Special Duties, Mr. Augustine Ayemidejor was quoted as saying that Ugbukurusu and other communities were to be resettled and supplied with relief materials with exclusion of Obontie which was totally razed down by Ugbukurusu since August 2001. We want to place on record that after the destruction in which many lives were lost and disabled, the people of Obontie were forced into exile all over the state."
Continuing, Ololo said repeated appeals were made to the Chairman, Sapele Local Government and the state government to create an enabling environment for them to be resettled in their homes but all to no avail, insisting that it is the inaction to the various appeals that has caused the present crisis between Obontie and Ugbukurusu.

02 / 12 / 2004

"Amnesty condemns use of death penalty on women"

The international human rights group Amnesty International has condemned the use of the death penalty on women in Nigeria, saying it discriminates against them in certain cases such as abortion and sexual behaviour.
The organisation said in a report published on Tuesday that laws which classify abortion as homicide punishable by death and the harsh punishments prescribed for adultery under Islamic or Shari ah law operated in the mainly Muslim north of Nigeria were particularly weighted against women.
It protested that one woman who was currently on death row had been charged with culpable homicide after she apparently delivered a still-born baby. The court condemned her to death after ruling that she had undergone an illegal abortion.
Nigerian human rights lawyer, Dele Aremu, said agreed with Amnesty's view that certain provisions of Nigerian law discriminated against women.
Apart from the better known cases of women sentenced to death for adultery under Shari ah, the law which classifies abortion as culpable homicide exists in our penal code and has been used to obtain convictions in the past, he told IRIN.
This law was inherited from the British colonial government but is no longer applicable in Britain and should be expunged from our penal code, he added.
According to Amnesty International, a total of 33 people have been sentenced to death in Nigeria since President Olusegun Obasanjo was first elected to power in 1999.
There are now a total of 487 prisoners on death row in Nigeria, of whom 11 are women.
Some women charged and detained for capital offences have spent up to 10 years in prison awaiting trial. Amnesty International described such long delays in meting out justice as a form of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment forbidden by the United Nations declaration on human rights.
Amnesty International which opposes the use of the death penalty in general, accused 12 states in Nigeria s Muslim-dominated north that have adopted Shari ah law of using the death penalty to regulate sexual behaviour. Punishments prescribed by Shari'ah include stoning to death for adultery.
The rights group said the application of such strict Islamic laws on women violated their rights to freedom of expression, freedom from discrimination, freedom of association and privacy.
Amnesty International condemned what it called the criminalisation of consensual sexual relations between people over the age of consent .
Jama'atu Nasril Islam (JNI), the umbrella body for Islamic organizations in Nigeria, responded to the report by accusing Amnesty International of carrying out an anti-Muslim campaign.
"We are warning Amnesty to desist from disparaging Islam under the guise of human rights," JNI said in a statement on Wednesday in the northern city of Kano.
"The issue of stoning for adultery is an Islamic injunction which applies only to Muslims and every Muslim who commits adultery is aware of the consequence of this offence if he is prosecuted," it added.