AFRICA - House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats

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tween Tivs, Jukuns, and other tribes in Taraba, Benue, Nassarawa, and Plateau
States during the year, killing dozens of persons. Numerous persons were killed in
frequent ethno-religious and communal violence throughout the year in Plateau.
During the year, members of student affinity groups, commonly known as cults,
occasionally killed students from rival groups. Cultism in schools gradually was becoming
a national issue. Rivalry and fighting between and among rival cultist
groups in higher institutions has led to the killing of persons and destruction of
property. University of Nigeria, Nsukka, in the east was closed when rival cultist
groups engaged each other in a fight and three students reportedly were killed and
property was destroyed. University of Calabar, University of Ibadan, and University
of Ife in the south have been closed for the last 2 years due to violent cultist activities.
At the Federal College of Education in Zaria in late September and early October,
violence between Christian and Muslim students erupted over student elections.
A dozen students reportedly were killed and more injured.
b. Disappearance.—There were no reports of politically motivated disappearances
during the year. There were no developments in the charges made by the OPC in
2000 that the police were responsible for the disappearance of at least two of its
members.
Members of ethnic groups in the oil-producing areas kidnaped foreign and local
oil company employees to press their demands for more redistribution of wealth generated
by joint ventures with the state-controlled petroleum corporation. In all instances,
the victims were released unharmed after negotiations between the captors
and the oil firms; the firms usually paid ransoms and promised improved conditions.
There also were numerous instances of strictly criminal kidnaping, in which the
perpetrators’ objective was to obtain ransom payments for the release of the victims.
During the year, there were a greater number of kidnapings by criminals to extort
money than for ‘‘political’’ reasons. Some kidnapings, particularly in the Delta, appear
to have been part of longstanding ethnic disputes over resources. Due to limited
manpower and resources, the police and armed forces rarely were able to confront
the perpetrators of these acts, especially in the volatile Delta region. A lack
of resources prevented judicial investigations from taking place so kidnapings routinely
were not investigated.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.—
The Constitution prohibits cruel and degrading treatment and punishment, and the
law provides for punishment of such abuses; however, during the year, police, military
and security force officers regularly beat protesters, criminal suspects, detainees,
and convicted prisoners. Police regularly physically mistreated civilians in attempts
to extort money from them. The law prohibits the introduction into trials of
evidence and confessions obtained through torture.
Different versions of criminal Islamic Shari’a law were in place in 12 northern
states (see Section 2.c.). Shari’a courts delivered ‘‘hadd’’ sentences such as amputation
for theft, caning for fornication and public drunkenness, and death by stoning
for adultery. Because no applicable case has reached the federal level, federal appellate
courts have yet to decide whether such punishments represent impermissible
‘‘torture or. . . inhuman or degrading treatment’’ as defined by the Constitution.
In both common law and Shari’a courts, indigent persons without legal representation
were more likely to have their sentences carried out immediately upon being
sentenced; all accused persons have the right to appeal. The Government has instituted
a panel of legal scholars to draft a uniform Shari’a criminal statute for all
northern states to replace divergent Shari’a statutes adopted by the states; however,
states continued to apply their individual codes.
Convicted Muslim criminals in Shari’a law states were subjected to public caning
for various offenses, such as petty theft, public consumption of alcohol, and engaging
in prostitution. For example, in January a Shari’a judge was flogged publicly after
being convicted of consuming alcohol. Caning as a punishment under common law,
the Northern Nigerian Penal Code, and Shari’a law has not been challenged in the
court system as a violation of the cruel and inhuman punishment clause in the Constitution.
Stoning and amputation sentences have been overturned on procedural or evidentiary
grounds not on constitutional grounds. For example, Safiya Hussaini was
convicted of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning by a Shari’a court in Sokoto
in September 2001. She filed an appeal challenging her conviction on numerous procedural,
substantive, and factual grounds. On March 25, accepting many of the defense
team’s arguments, the Sokoto Shari’a Appeals Court overturned Hussaini’s
conviction. However, the constitutionality of these sentences will most likely not be
determined until one of these cases reaches the federal appellate court system.
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