UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
NIGERIA: IRIN News Briefs [19991104]

NIGERIA: IRIN News Briefs [19991104]


NIGERIA: IRIN News Briefs, Wednesday 3 October 1999

CONTENTS:

Police arraign 56 for Lagos clashes Government forms panel on floods Nigeria, Britain plan joint military exercise Britain ready to help with police training

Police arraign 56 for Lagos clashes

Fifty-six people were arraigned in a Lagos court on Tuesday for murder, arson and rioting in the low-income neighbourhood of Ajegunle, where at least 12 people died in communal clashes over the weekend, according to media sources.

`The Guardian' said that no pleas were taken from the accused who were remanded in custody. Their cases have been adjourned until 3 December, pending advice from the office of the Director of Public Prosecution. Another 55 accused are still at large.

A media source told IRIN that police had only been able to confirm 12 deaths from the clashes that began on Saturday when members of the Oodua People's Congress (OPC), a militant Yoruba interest group, attacked Ijaw youths at a funeral. After the Ijaws retaliated by burning down the OPC headquarters, more Ijaws were attacked before police finally brought the area under control on Monday.

An uneasy calm now reigns in Agegunle, the media source said, since an 8 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew declared on Monday by Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu.

Tinubu met on Wednesday with local leaders of the Yoruba, Ilaje and Ijaw ethnic groups to seek ways to ensure the violence did not flare up again, the source said.

Government forms panel on floods

Minister of State for the Environment Ime Okopido announced on Tuesday that the federal government had formed a panel to study the high incidence of floods in recent weeks in Nigeria, `The Guardian' newspaper of Lagos reported.

Okopido said at a news briefing that the panel would set up a national emergency plan and early warning system to prevent floods which, in the Niger Delta, have stemmed largely from the heaviest rains in 30 years. The government has promised to buy better scientific equipment to improve rainfall forecasts.

Okopido said his ministry would liaise with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the National Commission for Refugees (NCR) on the provision of relief material to inhabitants of flood-affected communities.

Nigeria, Britain plan joint military exercise

Britain and Nigeria are to hold joint military exercises early in the year 2000, Defence Minister Theophilus Danjuma told officers and men of the National War College in Abuja on Tuesday.

`The Guardian' reported Danjuma, a former army general, as lamenting the lack of training during the period of military rule in Nigeria. However, he said, renewed emphasis would be placed on training so that professionalism would be restored to the military.

Danjuma said military instructors would be retrained and that some friendly countries had already offered help.

Britain ready to help with police training

In a related development, British High Commissioner Graham Burton said London was ready to help retrain the Nigerian police and formulate police policy development, the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) reported on Monday.

Inspector General of Police Musiliu Smith put the request directly to Burton and visiting officials of the British Department for International Development. Smith also asked for Britain to help provide modern equipment.

Britain suspended its training programmes for Nigeria during the harshest years of military rule.

[ENDS]

______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

[IRIN-WA: Tel: +225 217366 Fax: +225 216335 e-mail: irin-wa@ocha.unon.org ]

Item: irin-english-1911

[This item is delivered in the "irin-english" service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: irin@ocha.unon.org or Web: http://www.reliefweb.int/IRIN . If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer.]

Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 1999

Subscriber: afriweb@sas.upenn.edu Keyword: IRIN

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

Previous Menu Home Page What's New Search Country Specific