Curfew in Bauchi, North East Nigeria Over Religious Clash afp20090727614002 Abuja Hot fm in English 26 Jul 09

Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua has ordered an investigation into the violence and the killing in police custody of the sect's leader Mohammed Yusuf.

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay and rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called on the government to investigate the security forces' role in the violence.

Nigeria's 140 million population is divided between Christians in the south, and Muslims mainly in the north, where 12 of the 36 states adopted Islamic sharia law in 2000.

[Description of Source: Paris AFP (World Service) in English -- world news service of the independent French news agency Agence France Presse]

Nigeria Apologizes to UN for Alleged Killings of Islamic Sect Leaders

AFP20090818565004 Abuja Daily Trust Online in English 18 Aug 09

[Report by Atika Balal and Abdulhakeem Akinola: "Boko Haram: FG Apologises to UN Over Killings"]

A Federal Government delegation was in Geneva, Switzerland, at the weekend to apologise to the United Nations [UN] for the alleged extra-judicial killings of Boko Haram sect leaders last month, head of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Ronald Ewubare said in Abuja yesterday.

The delegation comprised Attorney-General of the Federation Michael Aondoakaa, the NHRC boss and the state house counsel.

In Lagos yesterday, Aondoakaa , who confirmed the Geneva trip, said the Federal Government would punish members of security forces found to have perpetrated the alleged extra-judicial killings.

Hundreds of Boko Haram followers were allegedly summarily executed in Maiduguri, Borno State, where violence that started with attacks on police and other establishment formations left more than 700 dead. Though the police claimed to have killed the Boko Haram leaders in combat, video evidence later showed that the sect leader Mohammed Yusuf and alleged financier Buji Foi were shot dead in captivity.

Aondoakaa said at the opening of the 2009 Nigeria Bar Association [NBA] Annual Conference in Lagos that the Federal Government had contacted the UN commissioner in Switzerland towards conducting full investigation into the Boko Haram killings.

Speaking when he received visiting Australian High Commissioner to Nigeria Jeff Hart, the NHRC executive secretary Ewubare said the Nigerian delegation told the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay that they were in Geneva to plead so that the country would not be sanctioned by the UN. He said Nigeria assured the UN that as soon as ongoing investigation is concluded those found culpable would be punished in accordance with the law.

"President Umaru Yar'Adua's state house counsel (and others) were at Geneva on Friday to apologise to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay and to indicate to her in very strong terms that what happened in the north-eastern parts of Nigeria is taken very seriously and that severe efforts will be made to bring those responsible for those horrendous crime to book," he said.

He said that consequences of the Boko Haram crisis provided an avenue for the commission to be proactive. "We all know that the Boko Haram leader was despicable and was responsible for the deaths of several people but executing him alongside Buji Foi was a wrong step to take," Ewubare said.

Speaking on efforts of the Federal Government towards the dispensation of justice, Aondoakaa said various bills have been sent to the National Assembly to be enacted into law. The bills, he said, include Prison Service Bill, Violators of Human Rights Bill, Police Act Bill and Legal Aid Council Bill.

The minister called on the bar and the bench to unite for the law profession to thrive.

Aondoakaa also said the Federal Government has a firm conviction that unconstitutional means will not be use to solve differences with Lagos State on the controversial 37 Local Council Development Areas.

Chief Justice of Nigeria Justice Idris Kutigi, who was represented by the justice minister, condemned delay of dispensation of justice at the courts and urged lawyers and judges to work together.

[Description of Source: Abuja Daily Trust Online in English -- Website of the independent pro-North daily; URL: http://www.news.dailytrust.com/]

Nigeria: Ogun State Police Command Arrests 4 members of Islamic Sect

AFP20090818578005 Isheri Nigerian Compass Online in English 2300 GMT 17 Aug 09

[Report by Kunle Olayeni: "Four Suspected 'Boko Haram' Members Arrested in Ogun Distribute Almanacs, Pamphlets"]

Four men suspected to be members of the violent Boko Haram Islamic sect have been seized by men of the Ogun State Police Command, creating the fears that the group might have started making incursion into the South-West geo-political zone.

The suspects - Muhammad Nuru, Waliu Muhammad, Ahmadu Musa and Siaku Adamu - were arrested on Sunday in Ibafo, Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of the state, allegedly in possession of "inciting materials."

The police said they arrested them with many copies of almanacs and pamphlets showing the various photographs of the late Boko Haram leader, Muhammad Yusuf, and the remains of several members of the sect who unleashed violence in some parts of the North last month.

Parading several crime suspects yesterday at the Police Command Headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta, the state capital, the state Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Hashimu Argungu, declared that the suspects would soon be arraigned in court following the conclusion of police investigation.

Argungu stated that the police were yet to ascertain where the suspects obtained the inciting documents and the motive behind the circulation.

"The police had been able to arrest four of them with inciting and incriminating documents, which they were distributing among tanker drivers in Ibafo, on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway," he said.

The police boss, however, assured members of the public not to be jittery over the development, adding that the command was determined to ensure the security of lives and property in the state.

Argungu also paraded several armed robbery suspects, cultists and a middle-aged man said to be a ritualist, Rasaki Yekini, who was allegedly arrested with a fresh human head.

The police commissioner said the alleged ritualist who was apprehended penultimate Wednesday by an anti-crime patrol team on the Ibadan-Ijebu-Ode road, concealed the human head in a black polythene bag.

While saying that 21 stolen vehicles had also been recovered from various parts of the state, Argungu disclosed that some cult members who killed a policeman in Adigbe area of the state capital about two weeks ago had been arrested.

The Boko Haram sect had unleashed mayhem on four states in the North last month during which more than 700 lives were lost and valuables worth millions of naira were destroyed.

They launched a campaign against Western education, attacking the security agents and government property in the process.

Their two prominent leaders who were caught alive, while the violent raged, were allegedly summarily executed by security agents.

[Description of Source: Isheri Nigerian Compass Online in English -- Website of the privately owned newspaper close to former Rivers State Governor Peter Odili; URL: http://www.compassnewspaper.com]

Nigeria: Group Warns of Possible Genocide Attack by Islamic Militants

AFP20090818565015 Lagos Daily Sun Online in English 18 Aug 09

[Report by Geoffrey Anyanwu: "MASSOB Raises Alarm Over Boko Haram"]

Apprehension could best describe the mood in the South East following an alarm that Islamic militants have perfected plans to attack the zone. Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), which raised the alarm at the weekend, said already most of the mosque and militancy formations in the area have been stockpiled with arms and ammunition for the purpose.

In a swift reaction, the immediate past President-General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Dr. Dozie Ikedife, has urged the Federal Government not to treat with laxity the matter but to investigate it.

MASSOB Director of Information, Comrade Uchenna Madu, in a statement alleged that the killing of Boko Haram leader, Mohammed Yusuf was deliberate in order to destroy the evidence that large consignment of arms and ammunition were being stockpiled in mosques and army depots in the South East and South-South for the planned attack.

"MASSOB through Biafra intelligent agency have uncovered plot by the northern government sponsored Islamic Militant Fundamentalist to launch genocide attack on Biafrans.

"Through our security reports, some mosque in Biafran land has become armoury depot for them.

MASSOB, however, warned that though it is a non-violent organisation, it would not sit and watch any group unleash genocide on Biafran land, urging the South easterners to be on alert.

"Biafrans are advised to be alert and ready to defend their fatherland. Even though MASSOB is a non-violent organisation, we will not fold our hands and watch Biafrans slaughtered like rams by Arewa people.

"MASSOB condemned the hurried manner in which the leader of Boko Haram, Mohamed Yusuf, was killed even when he (Yusuf) was handed over to police alive by soldiers.

'MASSOB reasoned that his hurried execution by the Nigeria government was to destroy the evidence that large consignment of arms and ammunition are being off-loaded in some selected arms depots and mosques in the South-East/South-South purposely to launch deadly attacks on the Biafran people and also to save the faces of some northern influential politicians, religious/traditional leaders and businessmen who are directly and indirectly connected to Mohammed Yusuf and his group."

Meanwhile, Dr. Ikedife has asked the Federal Government to ensure that every piece of information in a situation like the one the nation was in is not treated with ignominy.

"Even if it is true or not, this is an alarming situation and we are warning whoever that is trying to fish for trouble should do so in his fathers home and not in Igboland. We also urge the Inspector General of Police, Ogbonnaya Onovo, to look into this matter before it gets to an uncontrollable situation.

"We urge the Federal Government to take all necessary steps to nip this in the bud and avert more lost of lives and property in our country. Those who are trying to draw a final knife of disintegration should allow it to be done peaceful instead of shedding blood of innocent peopl.

"But it is important to add that we may have no other option than to defend ourselves if it gets to that level, but I still have implicit confidence in the Federal Government and the inspector general of police that this looming danger would be averted."

[Description of Source: Lagos Daily Sun Online in English -- Website of the privately owned daily close to former Abia State Governor Orji Kalu; URL: http://www.sunnewsonline.com]

Nigeria: Report Gives Details of Litany of Police Extra-Judicial Killings

AFP20090819619003 Lagos Newswatch in English 17 Aug 09 - 24 Aug 09 10-18

[Report by Kazeem Akintunde: "Wasted Lives"]

Here are the gory tales of how thousands of Nigerians are framed up and killed by the police annually

July 12 would forever remain indelible in the memory of Onyeka Osadebe for the rest of his life. And that is if he survives his present ordeal in the hands of the Nigeria Police. On that day, Osadebe’s life turned full circle. He began the day a freeman but ended it in police custody as a robbery suspect. He was shot in the thigh by the police to force him to confess that he was a notorious armed robber.

He was later dumped in the cell for two days without medical attention. When he did not admit that he was an armed robber, he was ordered to be transferred to the dreaded anti-robbery squad, [SARS] in Ikeja by the divisional police officer of Alagolo Police Station. On the way to SARS, Osadebe attempted to escape. He was again shot in the scrotum.

Osadebe is now at the Lagos Island General Hospital where he is chained to his hospital bed. Friends and relations are not allowed to see him. A police officer is on hand to watch over him. Perhaps, if he had an inkling of what was in store for him that day, he would not have left his house at all.

His ordeal began around 10 a.m. on that fateful day when he was accosted by youths in Ayobo, a Lagos suburb, on the allegation that his movement in the area was suspicious. He was taken to the residence of SA Akiniyi, a prominent chief of the area, who invited the police. Osadebe was taken to Alagolo Police Station where he was accused of "breaking and entry." Emeka Okezie, the divisional police officer perceived him as an armed robbery suspect. He was later shot in the thigh.

His family has, however, approached the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights [CDHR], a non-governmental organisation, for help. CDHR has written a petition to the inspector general of police claiming the sum of N500 million on behalf of Osadebe. The police, the CDHR demanded, should also bear the total cost of his treatment while police officers responsible for the shooting should be brought to book.

In the petition dated August 4 and signed by Olasupo Ojo, president of the CDHR, the NGO threatened that failure to pay the said amount within seven days the organisation would be left with no other option than to institute a legal action against the police. Frank Mba, the police public relations officer of the Lagos State command, told Newswatch that he was not aware of the matter.

Osadebe can count himself lucky. He is still alive and trying to enforce his fundamental human rights.

Muhammed Yusuf, the leader of a religious sect known as Boko Haram, (western education is evil), Buji Foi, a former commissioner in Borno State, and Baba Fugu Muhammed, in-law to Yusuf, were not that lucky. The three were killed by the police in controversial circumstances. While Yusuf was arrested by men of the Nigeria Army and handed over to the police, Foi and Muhammed allegedly gave themselves up after they were declared wanted. The three were allegedly killed by the police. But the police account is that Yusuf, the sect leader, was killed while trying to escape from police custody on the night of July 30, while Foi and Muhammed were killed in a gun duel.

Ben Ahanotu, a colonel, who led the military onslaught against the Boko Haram group, exonerated his men from the killing, saying that he personally captured Yusuf and handed him over to the commissioner of police in Maiduguri.

The worldwide condemnation of the extra-judicial killing of the trio forced the federal government to order an investigation. President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua said that the investigation was necessary because of his administration’s uncompromising stance on the rule of law as an anchor to good governance and progress in the country.

Sarki Muktar, a retired major-general and the national security adviser, who heads the committee, is set to submit its report to the federal government after hearing from Christopher Dega, the Borno State commissioner of police and Ahanotu. In Nigeria, extra-judicial killings take place on a daily basis.

One case of extra-judicial killing that Nigerians would not forget in a hurry is that of six young Nigerians who were killed by the police in Apo area of Abuja in June 2005 on the pretext that they were armed robbers. The six who were of Igbo extraction had on June 7, 2005, gone out in a Peugeot 406 saloon car to visit friends. On their way back after the outing, they were stopped by policemen who were at a pin-down point at Gimbiya Street, Area 11, Garki Abuja.

Those in the vehicle were Anthony Nwokike; Chinedu Meniru Ifeanyi Ozor; Isaac Ekene; Paulinus Ogbonna and Augustina Arebun. The five young men were traders in Apo Mechanic Village in Abuja while the girl, Augustina; was a girlfriend to one of the victims.

An argument had ensued over bribe demanded by one of the policemen and Ozor. The police officer who was reeking of alcohol reportedly shot Ozor. He died on the spot. In a bid to cover the dastardly act, the remaining five occupants were killed by the police at different locations few hours later. The most pathetic was the case of the only female among the six who was strangled to death. Danjuma Ibrahim, a deputy commissioner of police was alleged to have killed the victims. The following day, their bodies were paraded before newsmen as armed robbers killed by the police in a shoot-out.

For the charge to stick, the police claimed that two locally made pistols, two live cartridges, two expended cartridges, two daggers, and one cutlass were recovered from the car.

But the stiff resistance of other traders at Apo Mechanic Village as well as the determination of Amobi Nzelu, a lawyer, ensured that the Apo-Six got justice. Nzelu was able to prove in court that the victims were extra-judicially killed by the police. At the end of the sordid saga, the federal government was forced to set up a judicial commission of inquiry headed by Justice Goodluck Olasumbo which indicted the police. The commission, which was set up on June 27, 2005, began sitting on June 29 and rounded up its sitting on August 5, 2005.

It submitted its report to the government on August 24, while the government’s white paper on the matter was made public on November 9, 2005. Broderick Bozimo, then minister of police affairs, had to formally apologize to the families of the victims on behalf of the federal government. He also conveyed to them government’s decision to pay a token of three million to each of the victim’s family to assuage their grief.

Surprisingly, while the case was going on, one of the six police officers indicted in the killings, Othman Abdulsalami, a chief superintendent of police, escaped from custody in Abuja. To date, nothing has been heard of him. The other five police officers were, however, subsequently arraigned before Justice Ishaq Bello of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory on a nine-count charge of criminal conspiracy, punishable under section 97 (1) of the penal code.

The case is still in court while most of the indicted police officers have been granted bail. The list of extra-judicial killings in the country is endless.

Sagamu in Ogun State recorded its share of extra-judicial killings last year. Funmilayo Abudu, a mother of three was shot and killed by the police and her body was later paraded before newsmen as the female head of a 20-member armed robbery gang. A day after the police parade, Abudu’s employers, Demirs Poultry Farms, located on Sagamu-Ikenne Road, identified her as a member of staff and insisted that she was not a robber.

Indeed, it has now been confirmed that she was not a robbery kingpin. On the day she was killed, she had been sent to a nearby Texaco Petrol station to buy fuel for the farm’s power generator. Within minutes that her company driver dropped her off at the station, she heard the sound of gunshots between the police and armed robbers. And like everyone else that heard the combatants’ crossfire, she ran to take cover in the nearby bush to avoid being hit by the stray bullets.

Abudu hid herself in a swamp from where she telephoned a female colleague, Mama Tosin, to alert other workers of the gun battle. When she noticed that the sound of gun duel had gone down, Abudu tried to come out of hiding, but that proved deadly as she never lived to tell her story. She was shot dead by the police.

In order to cover up the reckless murder, the police allegedly decked her corpse with charms and amulets and then displayed it as evidence of her involvement in armed robbery. In a twist, however, the Sagamu Divisional Police Station, where Abudu’s remains were first taken and displayed, pulled another surprise.

The officers there suddenly remembered to put beside the lifeless body, an old AK47 rifle to support their claim. The police also stripped the lifeless body. A male staff of Texaco filling station confirmed that Abudu bought fuel a few minutes before the gun duel between the police and armed robbers. To date, members of her family are still crying for justice.

Alade Odunewu, a veteran journalist, is yet to come to terms with the gruesome murder of Modebayo Awosika, his son-in-law, who was also allegedly killed last year by the police and said that he was an accident victim. But evidence later confirmed the contrary.

The police first said that the young man, a banker, died after his vehicle hit a police van and somersaulted several times before catching fire but later changed the story after an autopsy report showed he died of ‘missile injury’ (gun shot). The new version of the police account was that they shot at his vehicle to demobilize it after he failed to stop at a check point.

The case is now in court and the veteran journalist has vowed not to rest until those that killed his son-in-law are brought to justice.

Last year, Abayomi Ogundeji, a journalist, was also killed by the police in controversial circumstances. Ogundeji was allegedly killed by the police at a check point around Akowonjo in Lagos, but his death was attributed to armed robbers. A female friend beside Ogundeji who was identified as Tunmise, who witnessed what happened had to relocate to Sagamu when it became obvious that she might be killed by the police in order to cover their tracks.

Her relocation did not, however, prevent her being killed as she was reportedly lured out of her Sagamu home and killed. A coroner’s inquest into the circumstances of his death is now on in Lagos State. The inquest, on Wednesday last week, temporarily moved to Alagbeleye Specialist Hospital, Ketu area of Lagos where Johnson Adeniken, an assistant commissioner of police, who was said to be on admission in the hospital and being treated for cancer, would give his testimony on oath on his sick bed.

Last year, Human Rights Watch conducted on-the-ground research in Jos, Plateau State on the ethnic violence that rocked the Tin City. The body found out that while most of the deadly inter-communal clashes took place on November 28, the vast majority of killings by the police and military took place the following day after Jonah Jang, the state governor issued a "shoot-on-sight" directive to the security forces.

Human Rights Watch claimed that it documented 118 cases of alleged arbitrary killings by the security forces that took place between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. on November 29, alone.

In 2002, Izuchukwu Ayogu and Nnaemeka Ngwoke, who were students at the Nsukka High School, in the Nsukka area of Enugu State were arrested by the police and later detained at the Nsukka police station for wandering. When their parents got to know that they were in the police custody in the evening, they went back home to raise money to bail the boys.

But by the time they returned to the station the following day, their whereabouts could no longer be ascertained. After a search party was raised, their remains were found in a shallow grave in a neighboring community. The Civil Liberty Organization [CLO] took up the matter and went to court.

The court later convicted 15 police officers who were connected to the extra-judicial killings of these two young men and awarded N30 million cost to the parents of the victims. To date, the police have not paid the N30 million, neither are the indicted police officers serving any jail terms.

In a report replete with innumerable examples of extra-judicial killings, the CDHR reckons that innocent Nigerians are killed and maimed while errant policemen go unpunished. For instance, policemen from the Delta State Command beat one Peter Osimiri, a businessman, and left him dead in June last year when he refused to pay N20 bribe at a police checkpoint in Kwale. The policemen who committed the heinous offence, according to the CDHR, are yet to be brought to book.