IN furtherance of its efforts to reform the Nigeria Police, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Alhaji Tafa Balogun raised a 555-man anti-corruption squad. Code named "Ghost Squad", the team is charged with the responsibility of checking corruption in the force.

Gani Fawehinmi, fiery government critic and advocate of human rights has declared that he will run for presidential office next year, and promises to investigate all past Nigerian leaders if he's elected.

Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo on Tuesday dismissed a report by Human Rights Watch on extrajudicial killings by the Nigerian military in 2001, news agencies reported.

Nigeria is to receive more than US $1 billion in an out-of-court settlement of a case against relatives and associates of its former president, the late Sani Abacha, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) reported on Wednesday, in Geneva. US $535 million is to be sent back from Switzerland while the rest will come from other countries.

The steering committee of the Federation of Muslim Women's Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN) for the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing 1995, met several times to review the achievement of Muslim women in Nigeria since the Nairobi Conference.

A new television series entitled, 'Trauma,' focusing on raising public awareness on domestic violence against women was launched in early April in Nigeria, one of the NGO's involved in the project told IRIN on Tuesday. The Programme Officer at Lagos-based Project Alert on Violence Against Women (PAVAW), Bridget Osakwe, said that the series aimed to deal with specific issues of violence against women including physical assault, male child preference and widowhood rites, within each of the five 30-minute episodes.

"I don't think we should put much hope on this regime's anti-corruption crusade," Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo cautions Nigerians two years after the inauguration of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission to implement the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act No. 5 of 2000.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa held a four-day meeting to articulate policies to stimulate the participation of women in development in West Africa.

Nigeria, the oil-rich West African nation that holds the largest population of black people in the world, has long puzzled outsiders and baffled its own citizens. In his nuanced, richly detailed, ambitiously conceived book, This House Has Fallen, journalist Karl Maier manages to show why. Combining deft reporting with an astute analytical mind, Maier movingly conveys a sense of the paradox of Nigeria, a nation conceived in hope but nurtured – mostly by its own leaders – into hopelessness. In the hands of a less confident writer, the canvas would appear cluttered and unsteady. Worse, it would be a depressing read. But Maier’s judicious sensibility holds the book together as he underlines the robustness and resilience, the sheer ebullience and promise of a people who have been ill-served by self-doubt and cynicism. This House Has Fallen stands as powerful testimony to a human drama that defies logic and comprehension. Maier’s book is an extraordinary achievement. ISBN 0 713 99523 8, Penguin, 2000.

The Nigerian government has so far failed to conduct any investigation or prosecution into the massacre of more than two hundred unarmed civilians by the Nigerian army in Benue State in October 2001, Human Rights Watch has charged in a report.

FOLLOWING incessant delays in the payment of government workers' salaries, the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) is to probe all Federal ministries and parastatals in the country.

Former Minister of Education, Prof. Aliyu Babatunde Fafunwa referred to last week's National Summit on Higher Education held in Abuja, as "one of the best we have attended". Bukola Olatunji writes on the week-long event.

A special body set up by Nigeria's president, Olusegun Obasanjo, to undertake rapid development of the country's impoverished Niger Delta oil region has started completing projects abandoned by its predecessor, officials said.

We would like to bring to your attention the case of a 35 year-old Nigerian woman, Safiya Hussani, sentenced to death by stoning for having a child outside marriage. The sentence will be revised within six days, and all human rights organisations are trying to put the maximum pressure on the Nigerian government to stop the sentence. The organisations have opened up websites in English, French and Spanish to collect signatures for a petition addressed to the President of Nigeria to pardon Ms Hussani. Please visit any of these sites to sign the letter.

In Nigeria, West Africa, one-year-old Adama will watch her mother, Sufiyatu Hussein, die in a cruel way if the Sharia Court of Appeals upholds the lower court's judgment. Sufiyatu is to be executed by stoning for giving birth to Adama out of wedlock. Under the Islamic law, which is the legal parameter in 12 out of the 19 states in Northern Nigeria, it is an offence that is punishable by death.

Rapid industrialization in Nigeria during the 1970's saw the establishment of car assembly plants, breweries and distilleries,detergent and cement manufacturing,textile and paper mills, food and beverage processing factories. This sudden rise in national wealth was not accompanied by careful planning in respect of environmental impacts. In Nigeria, despite warnings from non-governmental organisations, international multilateral agencies and researchers, the rate of industrialization continues to outstrip initiatives to manage and protect the environment. Atmospheric pollution in Nigeria is manifested chiefly by the flaring of gas at the oil company flow stations in the Niger Delta, by rampant unchecked emissions from manufacturing, automobiles and generating set exhausts, by open solid waste incineration and from slash and burn agriculture. Air quality degrading substances of major concern in Nigeria include sulphur dioxide, hydrogen sulphide, nitrogen oxide, cement kiln dust and other particulate matter and heavy metals. The contributors to this new publication focus on various aspects of air pollution within their own fields of expertise. The perspectives range from ecological sustainability and coastal pollution to urban degradation and law enforcement. The contributors address the institutional failure to identify sources of air pollution,monitor the levels and impacts of pollutants and enforce environmental legislation and suggest ways of creating awareness of the effects of air pollution and improving upon ecological efficiency in industrial production.

BROADCASTING is a complex profession demanding special attention. It has surpassed its traditional role of informing, educating and entertaining. In fact it is a mobilizer and a formidable factor in the new world order in economy, technology and politics.

Junior officers of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) who are threatening to embark on strike have written to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), requesting affiliation to the central labour body. However, Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Alexander Ogomudia whose non-commissioned officers are also reported to be planning a similar strike declared that there could never be a strike by soldiers.

A ground-breaking lawsuit against a major multinational oil corporation accused of complicity in serious abuses of human rights in Nigeria has passed a major judicial hurdle and moved a big step closer to trial.

Tension remained high in Jos, Plateau State , through-out last week following the fire outbreak that razed down the Jos main market. Three people were burnt to death and property worth millions of naira destroyed, February 12. There were fears that the incident might spark off a new round of crisis in the state.