Primaries organised by Nigeria’s ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday and Tuesday to choose candidates for next month’s local council elections were marred by factional violence. At least two people died and dozens of others were injured.

A university don, Prof. Ralph Akinfeleye, in Abuja advocated the total deregulation of the broadcast industry in Nigeria to allow for media pluralism. Akinfeleye said at a national workshop for senior radio journalists organised by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) and UN Population Fund that "it is through absolute deregulation of the broadcast industry that different shades of opinion can be freely expressed".

Shopkeepers hide their savings under mattresses and floorboards. Investors borrow at 40 percent interest and foreign businessmen buy tattered, smelly bundles of low-value local currency in hotel parking lots. In oil-rich Nigeria, one of Africa's most prosperous yet economically dysfunctional nations, the simple task of depositing your salary - or taking it out again - can require hours of patience and a lifetime of negotiating savvy. "Everybody is getting ripped off, and nobody wants to rock the boat. So they either keep quiet or just avoid (banks) altogether," said Tony Ede, spokesman for Nigeria's Central Bank, the country's banking regulatory authority.

Following allegations of bribery and corruption against its officials, the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs in Kogi State has set up a three-man committee to investigate the matter.

Former Chief of General Staff Vice Admiral Mike Akhigbe has said misplaced priorities in programmes and projects had done more harm to the country than corruption.

With women forming 49.68 per cent of the country's population according to a 1991 census, even though they are still marginalised politically, they remain very powerful as they control voting numbers in Nigeria, the Minister of Women Affairs and Youth Development, Hajiya Aisha Ismail has said.

The Nigerian police have arrested three senior officials in a central state over allegations that they demanded some $2.5 million in kickbacks for awarding a government contract to a businessman, state-run radio said on Sunday.

Following another round of ethno-religious violence which erupted last week in some parts of Plateau State, non-indigenes of the state comprising mostly Igbos and Yorubas have continued to leave the worse hit areas in spite of appeals of community leaders from those areas.

Minority rights activists in Nigeria have called on the government to act urgently on a ruling by the African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR) that the state perpetrated massive abuses in the southeastern area of Ogoniland. The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) said in a statement sent to IRIN last Friday that it was seeking an audience with Justice Minister Kanu Agabi to obtain the prosecution of those who violated the rights of the 500,000-strong Ogoni and compensation for the victims as requested by ACHPR.

When the three-year tenure of Nigeria's 774 local government councils lapsed at the end of May, new elected officials should have taken their place. However, no new councillors have been voted into office. In fact, it seems increasingly doubtful that local government polls will be held on 10 August as had been announced, and this has raised fears of a prolonged crisis in the country's third tier of government.

Two hundred victims of human trafficking were deported to Nigeria last week, bringing to 1,098 the number sent back from Europe and North America in the past three years, figures released on Wednesday by the Nigerian immigration authorities showed. More than 98 percent or 1,081 were women who had been sold to prostitution rings in the different countries. Only 17 of the victims were male.

The Special Adviser to the President on Women Affairs, Mrs. Titilayo Ajanaku, has called for the restructuring of the political parties at all levels to ensure gender balance. She said "all stakeholders hold it as a duty to see how the women can be encouraged to function and how to make the atmosphere conducive for women's participation without destroying their identities and distinctiveness."

Another batch of 92 policemen allegedly involved in corrupt practices were last week arrested by the Police Anti-corruption Squad. This brings to 243 the number of such arrests since the squad was initiated recently by the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun.

The attempt by former military President, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida to stop the implementation of the report of the Human Rights Violation Investigations Commission (HRVIC) got underway in Abuja last week with the federal government declaring before the Federal High court that General Babangida had no legal right to dictate when or how the reports of the HRVIC should be implemented.

The National President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Mr. Smart Adeyemi, has said that he is under "severe pressure" to scrap the Nigeria Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ). According to him, this should be done before the association's elections billed to be held next month. Adeyemi, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja, said that the Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE) and the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) "are pressing continuously" on the issue.

A Nigerian NGO leading the fight against women trafficking and child labour, said 242 Nigerian children were repatriated from Gabon between January 2000 and June 2001, the local press reported last Thursday.

Nigeria's government is under attack again for its lack of financial transparency. A recent report by a parliamentary committee says there has been a "virtual slide into financial anarchy".

Nigeria's election commission last Saturday registered three new parties out of a total of 24 that applied to compete in next year's national elections. The decision immediately reignited a furious row over the commission's strict rules, which many of the would-be parties regard as a cynical and unconstitutional ploy to exclude them.

The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop) has welcomed the decision of the African Human Rights Commission which found Nigeria in violation of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights in relation to its treatment of the people of Ogoni.

Ebonyi State in south-eastern Nigeria should not endorse the activities of vigilante groups, Human Rights Watch and the Centre for Law Enforcement Education (CLEEN) has said. The human rights groups were responding to recent reports that the governor of Ebonyi, Sam Egwu, was planning to introduce the vigilante group, known as the Bakassi Boys, into his state and to sign a law establishing them there. The Bakassi Boys have been responsible for numerous human rights abuses in the neighboring states of southeastern Nigeria where they operate, including extrajudicial killings, public burnings, mutilations, torture, and unlawful detentions.