Police arrest six Pakistanis in southwestern town

Nigerian police have arrested six Pakistanis following reports that they had broadcast inciting statements during weekly prayers in mosques in the southwestern town of Sagamu, officials said. Police sources said on Monday that Sagamu's traditional ruler, Oba Adeniyi Sonariwo, invited the police to take action after being alerted by local people. The Pakistanis were arrested on Friday and handed over to the immigration authorities. "You know Nigeria has experienced several incidents of religious violence in recent years and we can’t afford to allow foreigners to add fuel and make the situation escalate," a police spokesman told IRIN without giving further details. More than 100 people died in Sagamu in 1999 when ethnic and religious clashes broke out between the local Yoruba people and Hausa-speakers from northern Nigeria after a Hausa woman allegedly broke a local taboo. While northern Nigeria is predominantly Muslim, southwest Nigeria has a mixed population of Christians, worshippers of traditional religions and Muslims. Police sources said Sagamu residents accused the Pakistanis of seeking to undermine peace in the town. Following the terrorist attack launched against the United States on 11 September and protests last month in the northern Nigerian city of Kano against the bombardment of Afghanistan, President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government declared a security alert, placing citizens from 12 countries resident in Nigeria under surveillance. The countries are Afghanistan, Algeria, Chad, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan and Sudan. In October, 16 Pakistanis were reported to have been arrested either for illegal entry into the country or on suspicion of links with terrorist groups. In late September, five Indians and a German who had stayed in Nigeria for between seven months and two years, were deported for activities the authorities considered questionable.