Nigerian police routinely carry out summary executions of suspected criminals, use torture to extract confessions from detainees, and rape as an interrogation technique, according to a report by the Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI), a rights group, which appeals to President Goodluck Jonathan to make good on promises to urgently reform the force.

President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria on Thursday said the democratic stability of the Fourth Republic was traceable to the position the National Assembly took following "the unfortunate health challenges" which confronted late President Umaru Musa Yar'adua. Jonathan said "many speculated that Nigeria was going to split but you (National Assembly) proved them wrong." The President also stated that the success of his administration "would depend on the cooperation of the National Assembly".

After traveling halfway around the world from Nigeria to the U.S., Emem Okon, along with 17 other people representing oil-producing communities around the globe, stood today as shareholders ready to attend Chevron’s Annual General Meeting of the Shareholders. Chevron arbitrarily denied Ms. Okon and at least 13 others entry to the meeting despite the fact that other representatives from Chevron-impacted communities were allowed to enter the meeting.

A 15-year river blindness immunization programme in the fertile bread-basket of otherwise-arid Borno State in northeastern Nigeria, now in its 11th year, hangs in the balance for lack of funds. The disease, also known as onchocerciasis, reduced agricultural activities in the past two decades as farmers fled riverine areas, but this flight abated when aid agencies started the immunization programme. Now, two-thirds of the way through, it could flounder.

Health authorities are on alert as Lassa fever has now claimed 17 lives and infected dozens of people in northwestern Nigeria's Kebbi State, according to state health officials. The last outbreak of the deadly disease took place in February 2010, killing seven people, including four doctors at the National Hospital in Abuja. In March 2009 over 300 people were infected in 14 states across the country.

A report launched by the Open Society Justice Initiative and the Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) said Police in the country commit extrajudicial killings, torture, rape, and extortion with relative impunity. According to the findings of the report, which was release simultaneously in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, and New York, many members of the Nigeria Police Force are more likely to commit crimes than to prevent them.

Nigeria's upper legislative chamber, the Senate, will begin its investigations into the alleged marriage to a 13-year-old Egyptian girl by Senator Ahmed Yerimah, next Wednesday. The official News Agency of Nigeria Thursday quoted the Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges, Sen. Omar Hambagda, as saying the committee had received petitions from three serving female senators over the issue.

‘I think we will continue to suffer such injustices as we suffer in the Niger Delta as long as we (Africans, Nigerians) place more value on money than we place on life', writes Tolulope Ilesanmi, in response to an article by Alex Free.

Nigeria's state-run oil firm NNPC and China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) have signed a $23bn (£16bn; 18bn euros) deal. The two will jointly seek financing and credits from Chinese authorities and banks to build three refineries and a fuel complex in Nigeria.

Nigeria's ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chair Vincent Ogbulafor has resigned, a few days after he and three others were arraigned on a 16-count fraud charge, the local press reported. The report said Ogbulafor would present his letter of resignation Friday, after addressing the party's National Working Committee in the capital city of Abuja.

In the wake of the environmental disaster caused by the 20 April explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig, the oil multinational was immediately pressured into providing adequate compensation by the US government. This is an experience palpably not shared by Nigerian people in the face of another multinational, Shell, in the country's Niger Delta, writes Alex Free.

Reporters Without Borders has expressed deep shock at the death in unexplained circumstances of cameraman Jerry Usanga of Channels Television, whose body was found on the roadside by passers-by, on 4 May 2010. The spot where Usanga’s body was found, in Calabar, Cross River state in the south-east of the country, is close to the headquarters of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria's acting president, has been sworn in as the country's new leader following the death of Umaru Yar'Adua. Jonathan took the oath of office at a ceremony in the capital, Abuja, on Thursday, just hours after officials announced the death of Yar'Adua following a long illness.

Authorities in Nigeria have dropped charges against the former head of the country's anti-corruption agency. Nuhu Ribadu had been accused of not declaring his assets while in office. He was named head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, but was removed when he stood down in 2007.

The remains of late Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua were laid to rest Thursday evening in his home town of Katsina in the country's northern part. After funeral prayers led by the Chief Imam of Katsina, Mohammed Aliu, the body, draped in the national flag, was taken by foot some six kilometres away to the Dan Marna cemetery, one of the top cemeteries in the ancient town.

In the Niger Delta, Chevron’s operations have devastated communities’ local economies and environment. Chevron engages in gas flaring, the burning of associated gas that comes out of the ground when oil is extracted. People live literally next door to the toxic, roaring, ground-level flares—burning 24 hours a day, some for 40 years. Chevron is among the worst offenders in Nigeria, flaring over 84% of its gas in 2008. and add your own comments to this letter to Chevron's CEO.

Fiercely critical of the Nigerian political and business classes' perpetual money-grabbing and disenfranchising of ordinary Nigerians, Kola Ibrahim makes the case for Nigeria's Labour Party to develop into a 'mega-party' representative of the country's majority.

On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, Sokari Ekine reflects on the murders of three Nigerian journalists. She accuses the Nigerian press of colluding with government in its own oppression and presenting an illusion of the free press by failing to defend its own members.

The Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), the African regional organisation of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), has denounced the prevailing climate of insecurity in Nigeria which led to the murders of three newspapers journalists during sectarian violence which has gripped Africa’s most heavily populated nation.

Nigerians have praised acting President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to remove the much criticised election chief Maurice Iwu. Opposition Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora told the BBC that his removal was “the beginning of electoral reform”.