As the controversy over the plan by the Nigerian government to remove fuel subsidy deepens, the main opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) rejected the plan. In a statement issued in Lagos and obtained by PANA, ACN called the proposal to withdraw fuel subsidy 'the handiwork of those propelled by the philosophy of the 'Washington Consensus' of rolling back the frontiers of the state.' Under the plan announced by the government, the price of a litre of fuel will go up from 65 naira (4 US cents) to as high as 150 naira (about US$1) from next year.

Residents have begun to flee a northeast Nigerian city where a radical Muslim sect launched attacks that killed more than 100 people. Rev. Idi Garba said Tuesday 8 November that nearly all the Christians and non-natives of Yobe state had fled their homes in Damaturu, the state capital. Garba said streets remained deserted, without soldiers or police protection.

Nigeria's Boko Haram has threatened to carry out more attacks, a day after a series of blasts and gun battles claimed by the group killed more than 100 people in the country's northeast, the Nigerian Red Cross has said. Ibrahim Bulama, an official from the humanitarian organisation, said on Sunday that the death toll is expected to rise as local clinics and hospitals tabulate the casualty figures from Friday's attacks in Damaturu, the capital of rural Yobe state.

JK4, otherwise known as Edagberi/Betterland community is a community in Ahaoda West local government area of Rivers State, Nigeria. It is located along the Taylor Creek, sharing boundaries with Biseni and Ikarama communities in Yenagoa local government area of Bayelsa State. Over forty oil wells operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), several crude oil pipelines and Shell’s Adibawa Flow Station are located within the community. Community leaders have complained in the past that Shell has not been fair to the community in terms of amenities, even though so much wealth is pumped out from the community soil daily. Without pipe borne water the people have been drinking from the Taylor Creek that has often been polluted by crude oil spills. Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria heard of a protest by women in the community (10 October 2011) and promptly visited the community to compile the reports available at this link.

A tribunal in Nigeria has rejected an attempt by the opposition to declare President Goodluck Jonathan's victory in April's election fraudulent. The result triggered violence in northern strongholds of defeated opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari after he rejected the result. But the judge said Mr Jonathan won the election lawfully. Mr Jonathan, a southerner, obtained 59 per cent of the vote, while Mr Buhari got 32 per cent.

Bribing public officials when doing business abroad is a regular occurrence, and companies from Russia and China, which invested US$120 billion overseas in 2010, are seen as most likely to pay bribes abroad, according to Transparency International’s 2011 Bribe Payers Index. The index, which involves a survey of 3,000 business executives from developed and developing countries, also shows that companies from the Netherlands and Switzerland are seen as least likely to bribe.

Reporters Without Borders has called for a thorough and impartial investigation into the fatal shooting of Zakariya Isa, a reporter and cameraman for the state-owned Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), in Maiduguri, the capital of the northeastern state of Borno, on 22 October. His murder has been claimed by Boko Haram, an armed Islamist movement operating in northern Nigeria.

Nigeria's drive to boost the quality and processing of cassava, launched two months ago as part of a larger plan to turn the country into a powerhouse for food production, now has a leading cassava scientist at its helm. But the approach to agriculture being adopted by Nigeria has been criticised by a board member of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) for failing to acknowledge the needs and capabilities of peasant farmers. John Pickett, an IITA board member and a researcher at the UK-based agricultural research centre Rothamsted Research, was concerned that industrialising Nigeria's agriculture could have 'disastrous' consequences for its farmers. 'By and large it is just about making money out of industrial agriculture. I am not in any way convinced that the green revolution has much to offer the large majority of farmers in Africa.'

Top officials of the Dutch government at the weekend kept on the front burner efforts to bring lasting stability to the Niger Delta. The position of the government was articulated by Dutch parliamentarians and a representative of the country’s Foreign Affairs Ministry in charge of the Horn of Africa, East and West Africa. A Dutch parliamentarian, Sharon Gesthuizen, specifically tasked Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to clean up oil spill in all contaminated sites in the Niger Delta. Shell admitted that oil spill in the Niger Delta was wrong and it would do its best to remediate areas affected.

Gunmen attacked a ship supplying an Exxon Mobil oil platform off the Nigerian coast, the company said on Tuesday, less than three weeks after someone was kidnapped from a vessel at one of its facilities in the same waters. The incident was the latest in a string of attacks on ships in the Gulf of Guinea that experts say is threatening an emerging trade hub and growing source of oil, metals and agricultural products to world markets.

Nigerian police on 11 October arrested five senior journalists and two other officials of a Lagos-based private newspaper, the daily said in a statement. The Nation newspaper said in the statement that it believed the arrest was in connection with its front page report last week on a 'secret' letter allegedly written by ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo to President Goodluck Jonathan. In the purported letter, published on the front page of the newspaper, it was alleged that Obasanjo had asked President Jonathan to dismiss officials of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF).

The Nigerian Government Investigation Panel on the 2011 Election Violence on Monday submitted its report to President Goodluck Jonathan, warning that if the current social, economic and security situation in Nigeria are allowed to continue without addressing them it could 'escalate to social revolution'.

Shell fuelled human rights abuses in Nigeria by paying huge contracts to armed militants, according to a new report published by Platform and a coalition of NGOs. 'Counting the Cost' implicates Shell in cases of serious violence in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region from 2000 to 2010. The report uncovers how Shell’s routine payments to armed militants exacerbated conflicts, in one case leading to the destruction of Rumuekpe town where it is estimated that at least 60 people were killed. According to Platform’s report, Shell continues to rely on Nigerian government forces who have perpetrated systematic human rights abuses against local residents, including unlawful killings, torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.

A group of around 150 assailants have shot and hacked to death at least 19 people and seriously injured six people in a village in northwest Nigeria, police said. The attack took place on Saturday in Lingyado, in the state of Zamfara, which sits at the base of the Sahel where Africa's most populous nation borders Niger. Islamist sect Boko Haram has been blamed for scores of attacks in Nigeria's north, but there was so far no indication of the group's involvement in Saturday's raid.

There was total compliance 26 September to the one-week nationwide warning strike by Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, disrupting examinations in the nation's premier university, University of Ibadan, University of Jos and paralysing academic activities in others. The warning strike is in protest against Federal Government's alleged refusal to implement the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement which will be due for re-negotiation in six months. The agreement, among others include 26 per cent funding of education, wage improvement and upward review of retirement age of professors from 65 to 70 years.

A purported spokesman for a Nigerian Islamist sect blamed for scores of attacks, including last month's bombing of UN headquarters, has rejected a proposal to negotiate with the government. A spokesman for Boko Haram told journalists in a conference call in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, where the sect has carried out most of its attacks, that the group would push ahead with its violent campaign.

For the third time in five years the Nigerian parliament is considering a law seeking to prohibit same sex marriage after a new bill was presented to the House. The Nigeria government has been seeking to further criminalise same-sex relations in Nigeria through the prohibition of same-sex marriage since 2006.

Nigerian authorities have in recent days deported 115 illegal immigrants from the northern city of Kano amid increased security after an attack on UN headquarters in the country, an official said.

The Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) say they have opened an investigation into homophobic comments made by Nigerian football coach Eucharia Uche.

The storming of the Israeli embassy by Egyptian protestors and a selection of stories on Nigeria, including bomb attacks, Boko Haram and a campaign to rebrand the country are the focus of this week’s review of the African blogosphere, by Sokari Ekine.