Dozens reported dead in new outbreak of violence

Dozens of people were killed in fighting between two rival ethnic groups in southwest Nigeria at the weekend, news organisations reported on Tuesday. AFP quoted Paddy Dare, spokesman of the governor of Ondo State, as saying that the violence erupted on Friday between members of the Ilaje and Ijaw ethnic communities, locked in a dispute over control of the settlements of Oroto and Apaja. AFP and BBC reported state governor Adebayo Adefarati as appealing in a radio broadcast for a halt to the clashes between the two groups and asking them to attend peace talks on Wednesday. Dare said details of the fighting were sketchy, but that "certainly, not more than 50 lives were lost", according to AFP, which reported a journalist in Akure as saying the trouble started after Ilajes displaced by fighting in the area in September 1998 sought to return to their former settlements. The Ijaws, who had taken over the settlements refused to leave, and fighting followed, he said. According to the BBC, the 1998 clashes cost hundreds of lives and were caused by a dispute over land believed rich in oil reserves. Rights commission to meet in mid-August A commission of inquiry into human rights violations under military regimes since 1983 has postponed its first meeting to mid-August to give more time to plaintiffs to file complaints, AFP reported, quoting commission spokesperson Matthew Kukah. The seven-member body, which should have met on Monday to plot its work programme, is already inundated with complaints, AFP said. Former Supreme Court judge Chukwudifu Oputa chairs the commission, set up by President Olusegun Obasanjo to investigate individuals and institutions suspected of killings and of human rights violations from 1983 to May 1999. Last military regime misappropriated US $400 million Nigeria's last military leaders misappropriated US $400 million just five days before handing over to a civilian government, Energy Minister Bola Ige was reported as saying on Sunday. Using his ministry as an example, Ige said the military leaders siphoned this money on phony projects, according to a 'Vanguard' newspaper report quoted by AFP. They included, Ige said, a US $147-million dredging contract awarded to a relative of one the country's leaders, whose identity he did not reveal, AFP added.