Democracy good for human rights, CRP says

The return of democracy to Nigeria represents a "major landmark for human rights" here, with the country witnessing significant improvements in its record, the Constitutional Human Rights Project (CRP) said in its 1999 report.

The report, released on Friday to coincide with the United Nations Human Rights Day, said President Obasanjo's government had made significant efforts to redress human rights abuses of the past. One corrective measure, the CRP said, was Obasanjo's creation of a Human Rights Investigation Commission, headed by a respected retired Supreme Court Justice, Chukwudifu Oputa.

However, the government's record is "tainted" by the recent events in the Choba and Odi communities in Bayelsa State in the Niger Delta, CRP said.

"Soldiers were deployed to quell [the] crisis, but instead perpetrated severe human rights abuses, including killing, raping and assaulting members of these communities, and in the case of Odi, completely destroying the entire village, setting houses on fire and killing young and middle aged men found in the communities," CRP said.

Moreover, the CRP noted an increase in the number of extra-judicial killings perpetrated by the different anti-crime units set up by the states to combat armed robbery and unlawful acts.

"The spate of extrajudicial killings in the country is not helped by the recent directive from President Obasanjo to policemen to shoot on sight," CRP said.