Campus cult violence claims 115 lives
By Omon-Julius Onabu
This Day (05.09.2003)/ HRWF Int. (10.09.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - At least 115 students in various educational institutions in the country lost their lives to violent cult-related activities in the last decade.
During the same period, that is, between 1993 and June this year, the institutions meted severe disciplinary action out to 665 students for their involvement in cult activities. These startling statistics are contained in the current edition of Exam Ethics, a newsletter published by Mr Ike Onyechere, who is the executive chairman, Exami-nation Ethics Project, EEP.
The publication revealed that the dead included students killed in different rival cult wars witnessed during the period in the campuses while others including lecturers were innocent victims of violent cult activities. A total of 536 students were expelled by the institutions authorities and another 129 students suspended for various lengths of time for the same reason.
Speaking with newsmen during the Examination Ethics Workshop for Edo State Secondary School Heads in Benin, Onyechere said that all hope was not lost on the twin-evil of cultism and examination malpractices in our schools.
As indicated in the publication, thousands of students had, during the period under review, openly renounced their membership of secret cults, while anti-cult campaigns were taking place nationwide.
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Sharia group for death penalty
This Day (19.08.2003)/ HRWF Int. (20.08.2003) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The Bauchi State Sharia Commission has urged President Olusegun Obasanjo to drop, in the interest of Muslims, his plans to abrogate capital punishment in the country.
The commission said in a statement given to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the weekend in Bauchi that the proposed abrogation was not only an attempt to frustrate the implementation of Sharia but also an affront to Islam.
It said it would explore all peaceful means to protest the Federal Government's intention, but warned that where such means failed, it would not hesitate to mobilise the Muslim Ummah against the proposal.
In a related development, a renowned Islamic scholar in the state, Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi, has described the move as an open invitation to chaos, saying such should not be allowed to sail through at the National Assembly.
He said that those calling for the abrogation of capital punishment might become the first victims of the move, as armed robbers would not spare them.
"Even with capital punishment enforced, many innocent people are being killed daily; what would happen in the absence of the law?" the Islamic scholar asked.
He urged the Federal Government to desist from actions capable of igniting crisis in the country.
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Death toll rises to 15 in Northeast religious riots
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (12.06.2003)/ HRWF Int. (16.06.2003) Email info@hrwf.net - Website http://www.hrwf.net - At least 15 people have died as sectarian violence which first flared in the northeast Nigerian town of Numan at the weekend spread to nearby villages, the police said on Thursday.
Hafiz Ringim, the police commissioner for Adamawa State, in which Numan is located, told reporters the violence also degenerated into widespread looting of homes and shops by hoodlums who took advantage of the unrest.
Violence first broke out in the predominantly Christian town on Sunday after an itinerant Hausa-speaking Muslim trader with origins in the northwest, stabbed a Christian woman to death over a dispute. Mobs of Christian youths responded by burning the main mosque in the town along with other smaller ones and the buildings of prominent Muslims.
But as police reinforced in the town, bands of local ethnic Bachama youths spread to nearby villages to hunt down Muslims and continued the reprisal attacks, Ringim said. A dusk-to-dawn curfew has been imposed on the entire Numan district and surrounding areas while further police reinforcements have been sent into the area to maintain peace, he said.
Relations between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria have grown increasingly tense since twelve states in the country's predominantly Islamic north adopted strict Shariah law. The new legal code prescribes much harsher punishments for various offences than were previously applied. They include public flogging for drinking alcohol, the ampuation of limbs for stealing and stoning to death for adultery.
Thousands of people have died in bouts of Christian, Muslim fighting across Nigeria in the last four years since Shari'ah implementation began. Africa's most populous country of more than 120 million people is roughly split between a mainly Muslim north and a largely Christian south.
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Pastor and six family members burned to death in Nigeria
Christian Leaders Suspect Muslim Fanatics of Fatal Arson Attack
by Obed Minchakpu
Compass (07.05.2003)/ HRWF Int. (08.05.2003) Email info@hrwf.net - Website http://www.hrwf.net -- A zealous Christian preacher in the northern Nigeria city of Kano and six members of his family died in a house fire on April 22. Christian leaders in the city believe Muslim militants deliberately set the fatal blaze.
Pastor Sunday Madumere and his family were asleep in the early hours of the morning when flames engulfed their home, located on Apple Avenue in an area of Kano known as no-mans land.
Eyewitnesses told Compass that the pastors wife and three children died with him in the inferno, along with two men believed to be relatives of Madumere.
Pastor Madumeres son Daniel reportedly managed to escape before being trapped in the house with other members of the family. Christopher Ahiante, a neighbor of the family, said that Daniel Madumere sustained serious injuries and is presently in critical condition in a local hospital.
According to Ahiante, It took well over two hours before the fire was brought under control by the men of the Nigerian Fire Service.
Pastor Madumere is known for his powerful preaching, which has led many Muslims in Kano to convert to the Christian faith. Observers believe the conversions may have angered Muslim militants in the city and they decided to eliminate him.
Police authorities say the fire may have been caused by an electrical fault. Christian leaders, however, have ruled out that theory, insisting that the pastor and his family were victims of religious intolerance.
This incident is not the first of its kind here, said Rev. Gabriel Ojo of the First Baptist Church in Kano city. A number of Christians here and their leaders have been killed in the past by Muslim fanatics.
Rev. Ojo said that some years ago, extremists murdered Gideon Akaluka, a Christian, and carried his severed head through the streets. To date, government authorities have failed to punish the killers.
Bishop Nyam of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, added, Since the adoption of the Islamic legal system here, we have been forced into difficult situations. Christians have suffered because Muslim fanatics have taken the law into their hands.
We are not surprised at all about this incident, he added. We saw it coming.
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Christians defy ban on Easter celebrations
Police Impose Curfew during Presidential Elections
by Obed Minchakpu
Compass (22.04.2003)/ HRWF Int. (23.04.2003) Email info@hrwf.net - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Christians in Nigeria defied a three-day ban on Easter celebrations across the country and trekked to their many churches to participate in Holy Week services. Police officials ordered a dusk-to-dawn curfew from Friday to Sunday and designated Saturday a no-travel day in order to stem electoral fraud and political violence as the country held its presidential and gubernatorial elections.
Church leaders, however, denounced the ban as a deliberate attempt to curtail the religious liberty of Christians. The restriction was an attempt to prevent Christians from celebrating Easter, Dr. Olusola Ajolore, Kwara State Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria, told Compass in the city of Ilorin.
We had no other option than to ask Christians to disregard the restriction order in order to go to their various churches to celebrate, he said.
Rev. Fr. Patrick Arowole of the Catholic Church in Abuja said, It was not possible for Christians to have obeyed the police directive, since most churches across the country have the tradition of organizing midnight services to commemorate the death and resurrection of Christ.
He added, This is the best time to do so because we are celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus, our Passover Lamb. How terrible it would have been if we had accepted not to mark this event because of politics. We could not imagine how the government came up with the idea that Christians should not go out on these three significant days.
Ilorin did suffer political violence on Saturday evening while worshippers were returning on foot from church services. Reports on the outcome of elections in the state caused one crowd of Christians to break into spontaneous celebration, which drew gunfire from armed political opponents. Two people were reported killed and several suffered injuries.
In their Easter messages, many preachers urged Nigerians to make concerted efforts toward moving the country forward.
If the nation must survive, our leaders must remember that Nigeria belongs to all of us and not to the very few who found themselves in the corridors of power, Catholic Archbishop Dr. Anthony Olubunmi Okogie declared from his pulpit in Lagos. Now is the opportunity for our country to be transformed. There is a need for our leaders to give us a new hope for the future.
Okogie lamented that the past four years of democracy in the country have not brought radical socio-economic transformation.
On Saturday, Alhaji Muhammadu Maccido, Sultan of Sokoto and leader of the Muslim community in Nigeria, called on politicians not to do anything that could jeopardize the democratic process in the country.
Earlier this week, international observers certified the elections as free and fair and expressed relief that fewer than expected incidents of political violence occurred. Analysts say that incumbent president Olusegun Obasanjos Peoples Democratic Party is on course to win a clear majority of seats in both legislative houses. Today the National Electoral Commission announced that Obasanjo has been elected for a second term as president, BBC reported. Obasanjo secured more than 60 percent of the vote in the countrys first civilian-run presidential election in 20 years.
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Muslim mob invades Christian village in Western Nigeria
More than 100 dead in retaliation attack
by Obed Minchakpu
Summary:
Compass (14.03.2003)/ HRWF Int. (17.03.2003) - Email: info@hrwf.net - Website: www.hrwf.net -- More than 100 persons died and 500 were injured when a Muslim mob attacked a Christian community in western Nigerias Adamawa state apparently in retaliation for the deaths of 16 Muslims three months ago. The February 28 attack on the Christian community of Yugur in Dumne village in the Song local government area is the latest clash in the age-long dispute between Muslims and Christians in the region. A spokesman for the Red Cross said that 130 houses and some churches were razed, and 21,000 persons have been displaced. An unknown number of Christians are still missing.
Full Story:
Yola, Nigeria, March 14 (Compass) -- More than 100 persons died when a Muslim mob attacked a Christian community in western Nigerias Adamawa state apparently in retaliation for the deaths of 16 Muslims three months ago.
The February 28 attack on the Christian community of Yugur in Dumne village in the Song local government area is the latest clash in the age-long dispute between Muslims and Christians in the region.
Mr. Emmanuel Ijewere, president of the Nigerian Red Cross Society, told Compass the death toll now stands at 110, with 500 injured; 50 are in critical condition. He added that 130 houses and some churches were razed, and 21,000 persons have been displaced. An unknown number of Christians are still missing.
Shortly after the attack began, Nigerian army and police personnel were sent to regain control over the area, but they were also attacked by the Muslim mob. Two soldiers and six policemen died.
Peter Mamman, a Christian victim of the attack, said the Muslims overwhelmed the soldiers and the policemen. The well-armed Muslim militants possessed magical powers which they used to bewitch them, Mamman said.
In December last year, a religious conflict engulfed Dumne village that also pitted Muslims against Christians. During that clash, 16 Muslims and two Christians were killed. The recent attack by Muslims on the Christian community is seen as an attempt by Muslims to retaliate for the 16 deaths.
Eyewitnesses said houses and churches in the village were burned to the ground by the invading mob. They blamed the government for not having enough policemen to protect the village.
Joshua Atiku, special advisor to the governor of Adamawa state, expressed sympathy with the victims of the attacks and said steps were being taken to curtail further attacks.
Meanwhile, police officials in the state have reported the arrests of 13 Muslim extremists from the Republic of Chad. The extremists are being accused of assisting in the attack on Christians in Dumne.
Our men engaged the Muslim militants in a gun battle in which the leader of the group, a woman on horseback, was killed while 13 of them were arrested, State Police Commissioner Muhammed Shuaibu told journalists in Yola on March 4.
Shuaibu said 50 sets of bows and arrows, three guns and other weapons were recovered from the extremists. He added that they were dressed in military uniforms.
Mr. Femi Oyeleye, police public relations officer for the Adamawa State Command, confirmed the arrests, saying, Some foreigners, suspected to be Chadian mercenaries, are in the police net facing serious interrogation.
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