US embassy cable - 05LAGOS661

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 LAGOS 000661 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PGOV, PREL, KIRF, ELAB, NI 
SUBJECT: SOUTHERN NIGERIA HUMAN RIGHTS UPDATE, APRIL 
2005 
 
REF: LAGOS 476 
 
1.   This cable is a roundup of various recent 
incidents that reflect the human rights situation in 
southern Nigeria.  This summary is organized by section 
of the annual Human Rights Report.  These incidents 
have not been reported in other cables, or are updates 
of previously reported items. 
 
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Section 1 - Respect for the Integrity of the Person 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
2.  On February 17, an Ijaw group captured and held a 
South Korean employee of Daewoo Nigeria Limited in 
Bayelsa State.  South Korean Embassy and Bayelsa State 
officials assisted Daewoo in securing the employee's 
safe release the following morning.  South Korean 
officials believe the group took the employee to raise 
its profile, though the captors also asked for ransom. 
 
3.  On March 6, a headless body was found along a road 
in Ibadan.  On March 8, three headless bodies were 
discovered in different locations in another area of 
Ibadan.  Local police suspected ritual killings, but 
investigations have not yielded any additional 
information. 
 
4.  On March 22, the Ikeja High Court ordered the 
unconditional release of 100 inmates from the Ikoyi 
Prison in Lagos.  The inmates had been awaiting trial 
for six to fifteen years. The Constitutional Rights 
Project (CRP) filed the motion for the release of the 
prisoners and presented the case before the court.  CRP 
representatives argued the periods spent awaiting trial 
were unconstitutional because the Nigerian Constitution 
states that any person imprisoned longer than the 
period allowed by law should be released 
unconditionally.  The law requires suspects to be 
charged within forty-eight hours of arrest.  A CRP 
representative confirmed that the prisoners have been 
released. 
 
5.  In March, five suspects were arrested for killing 
of seven oil workers, including two Americans, on April 
23, 2004, in Delta State.  The trial began March 31 at 
the Warri Magistrate Court and is still proceeding. 
Two of the suspects have indicated they were "very 
involved" in the incident, while the other three are 
believed to have been accomplices. 
 
6.  On April 11, a federal high court in Lagos granted 
bail to 52 members of the Movement for the 
Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) 
arrested in September and charged with treason.  The 
53rd member of the group had already been released on 
bail. 
 
7.  In early March, the Rivers State government 
demolished the bulk of the shanty town known as "Agip 
waterside" in Port Harcourt (reftel).  The action 
leveled hundreds of dwellings and displaced thousands 
of people.  On April 13, the State resumed demolition. 
The police arrested two Australian journalists when 
they asked permission to film the demolition.  The 
journalists were released after several hours, without 
charges. (septel) 
 
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Section 2 - Respect for Civil Liberties 
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8.  On March 27, two reporters from the Daily Sun 
attended the naming ceremony for a grandson of a wife 
of President Obasanjo.  Their intent was to report the 
event for the newspaper.  The infant's parents claimed 
the reporters planned to abduct the child and called 
the police.  The reporters were arrested, held 
overnight, and released without charges.  The Daily Sun 
editors believe the parents called the police because 
they did not want the event reported and feared the 
information would be used maliciously. 
 
9.  On April 8, military authorities detained for 
questioning the chief correspondent of the Associated 
Press in Nigeria.  Soldiers stopped the correspondent 
at Dodan barracks in Lagos, on his way to observe a 
Muslim prayer session for a story on Christian-Muslim 
relations in Nigeria.  The authorities told the 
correspondent he was detained for entering a military 
zone without the necessary permit.  The authorities 
released the correspondent after several hours but 
asked him to report to the garrison command on April 11 
to formalize his release. 
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Section 5 Discrimination, Societal Abuses, 
and Trafficking in Persons 
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10.  On March 21, Osun State enacted a law aimed at 
punishing those who encourage female genital mutilation 
(FGM).  The law makes it a punishable offense to remove 
any part of a woman or girl's sexual organs, except 
purely on medical grounds as approved by a doctor. 
According to the provisions of the law, an offender 
shall be any female who offers herself for FGM, any 
person who coerces, entices, or induces any female to 
undergo FGM, any person who allows his or her daughter 
to undergo FGM, and any person who other than for 
medical reasons performs an operation removing part of 
a woman or girl's sexual organs.  The law provides for 
a N50,000 ($375) fine or one year's imprisonment or 
both for a first offence, with doubled penalties for a 
second conviction. 
 
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Section 6 Worker Rights 
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11. On March 11, members of NUPENG and PENGASSAN, 
Nigeria's two oil employee unions, began a strike 
aboard sixteen Tidex Nigeria vessels in Delta, Bayelsa, 
and Rivers states.  (Note: Tidex Nigeria is a 
subsidiary of the U.S. oil services firm Tidewater 
International.)  About ten days later, the striking 
employees ordered the ships to be anchored at three 
ports and prevented other crew members, including 13 
Americans and 32-37 other expatriates, from leaving the 
vessels.  The unions began the strike as the result of 
several industry- and firm-level grievances, including 
impending staff reductions, changes in hiring 
practices, and benefit levels of recent contracts. 
Crews of two of the vessels returned to work on April 
2.  On April 7,  due to USG, GON and national union 
leadership efforts, the striking employees allowed the 
expatriates to leave the vessels.  The unions ended the 
strike April 14 after negotiating an agreement with 
Tidex.  Tidex management, however, remains unhappy with 
some of the terms of the agreement, so further 
negotiations may be needed. 
 
BROWNE