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CONTENTS:
Hospital run by OPC leader attacked New group formed to defend northern interests US delegation arrives for talks to improve bilateral ties Britain's CDC bids for stake in Nigerian bank NITEL's monopoly ends
Hospital run by OPC leader attacked
Armed youths, thought to number 100, killed one man and ransacked the 30-room Best Hope Hospital run by a leader of the Oodua People's Congress (OPC), an ethnic-based group currently engaged in factional fighting, witnesses told AFP on Wednesday.
The clinic, run by Dr. Frederick Fasheun, was attacked on Tuesday. He is the leader of the more moderate faction of the OPC, a Yoruba nationalist group, hospital workers and witnesses said.
Fasheun declined to say who was responsible for the attack However, AFP cited witnesses as saying they suspected the rival, hardline OPC faction, led by Ganiyu Adams.
New group formed to defend northern interests
A group in Kano, northern Nigeria, has said it is setting up an organisation to defend the interests of Hausa-Fulanis following recent clashes in Lagos between Hausa and Yoruba traders, the BBC reported.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has blamed the violence on a militant Yoruba organisation, the Oodua People's Congress.
The Kano group said it had opened an office to mobilise people - and would be responding to violence with violence, the BBC reported.
US delegation arrives for talks to improve bilateral ties
A US delegation headed by US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Pickering has arrived in Nigeria for talks on improving bilateral ties, the Nigerian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.
The 10-member team met Nigerian officials led by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dubem Onyia in the capital, Abuja.
Relations between United States and its biggest trading partner in Africa were icy during 15 years of military rule but warmed quickly after reforms led to the election of President Olusegun Obasanjo, who took office in May.
Britain's CDC bids for stake in Nigerian bank
Britain's Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) has bid US $9.8 million for a 25-percent stake in Nigeria's FSB International Bank (FSBI.LG), Reuters quoted the government's privatisation agency as saying on Wednesday.
The privatisation agency, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), said CDC was the sole bidder for the shares under President Olusegun Obasanjo's plan to divest state firms, starting with those already quoted on the stock exchange.
NITEL's monopoly ends
The government announced on Wednesday a new telecommunications policy that will end the effective monopoly of the state-run group NITEL on international calls, AFP reported.
According to AFP, following pressure from local and international operators, the Ministry of Communications said that under the new policy, NITEL would have to operate under a licence like "all the licenced operators".
Currently, private telecommunications operators and would-be operators have to go through NITEL to access international lines, giving the state-run corporation an effective monopoly.
Several major international operators have expressed interest in the potentially lucrative telecommunications market in Nigeria.
Only a minority of the country's 120 million people have access to telephones, AFP said.
[ENDS]
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Item: irin-english-2161
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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 1999
Subscriber: afriweb@sas.upenn.edu Keyword: IRIN
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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