Legislators give Obasanjo sweeping powers in Plateau

Nigeria’s National Assembly has approved eight new laws giving President Olusegun Obasanjo sweeping powers in strife-torn Plateau State where he imposed a state of emergency last month after a surge in inter-ethnic and religious violence. The laws approved by the two-chamber legislature on Tuesday gave the police and other security services the power to detain people indefinitely, conduct searches without warrants, impose curfews and ban public processions. Obasanjo declared emergency rule in the central Nigerian state on 18 May following a series of religiously-inspired massacres which threatened to spread throughout the country. He sacked the elected governor of Plateau State and disolved the state legislature. In their place Obasanjo appointed a retired army general as interim administrator for an initial period six months. For three years Plateau State’s Christian majority and its Hausa-speaking Muslim minority had been engaged in a series of tit-for-tat killings. Often these attacks were inspired by disputes over farming and grazing land as much as religious differences. The situation came to a head after an attack by militiamen of the mainly Christian Tarok ethnic group on the largely Muslim town of Yelwa on 2 May. Yelwa residents told the Nigerian Red Cross afterwards that more than 600 people were killed as local Muslims were shot dead, hacked down by machetes or burned alive in their homes. The Yelwa killings sparked off reprisal killings of Christians in Kano, the biggest city in northern Nigeria, whose population is overwhelmingly Muslim. Scores of people died in Kano and tens of thousands of Christians fled their homes as angry mobs of Muslim youths went on the rampage. Fearing far-reaching repercussions across Nigeria, Obasanjo assumed control of Plateau State and appointed a retired military general, Chris Alli, as the interim administrator. Nigerian human rights groups and other critics have charged that Obasanjo exceeded his constitutional powers by sacking an elected governor and legislature. On Tuesday, 15 such groups jointly filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the Plateau State emergency regime. Chima Ubani, director of the Civil Liberties Organisation, one of the groups challenging Obasanjo’s declaration of emergency rule through the courts, said the eight laws passed by the legislature confirmed his organisation's fears that human rights would suffer in Plateau State. “They (the new laws) run counter to the fundamental rights provisions of the constitution,” he told IRIN. According to Ubani, the new laws empower the interim administrator of Plateau State to detain anyone in the state “even with an oral directive.” In similar situations in the past when this country of 126 million people was under military rule, the attorney general or the head of police usually signed detention orders. However, Ubani said the new administrator appointed by Obasanjo was empowered to detain individuals indefinitely without even giving a written order. He also noted that any member of the security forces with the rank of captain or above was authorised to order the search of any premises without a warrant.