Nigeria’s Police Service Commission (PSC) held its first official joint advisory committee meeting with civil society organizations on April 11, marking an important step forward in increasing police transparency. Civil society organizations including the Justice Initiative used the inaugural meeting to recommend that the PSC be authorized to investigate extrajudicial killings, torture and rape allegedly committed by police in Nigeria.

The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), in the framework of their joint programme, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, has expressed their deep concern over a Bill that would introduce criminal penalties for public advocacy or associations supporting the rights of lesbian and gay people, as well as for relationships and marriage ceremonies between persons of the same sex. As a consequence, human rights defenders and organisations defending those rights will be at a greater risk of criminalisation.

In a bold move, African leaders meeting in Abuja have unequivocally demonstrated their commitment to accelerating access to HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria services in the next five years. Meeting in Abuja this week, at the Heads of State Summit to review progress towards the implementation of the Abuja Declaration on ATM and other related infectious diseases, leaders adopted ambitious continental targets for implementation of programmes addressing the three diseases.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has restated its opposition to the third term bid of President Olusegun Obasanjo and state governors, saying that it had been steadfast on the issue. Describing politicians as opportunists, the congress also deplored the part played by some former public office holders, including former Chairman of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Audu Ogbeh, and former Inspectors-General of Police in the abuse of workers' and citizens' rights.

Local communities in Nigeria are taking the World Bank before an internal auditor over claims that the lender neglected its duties and anti-poverty mission when it funded a controversial gas pipeline in the region, whose construction they say will harm the environment and area residents. Twelve Nigerian communities said they were filing the complaint about the West African Gas Pipeline with the inspection panel of the World Bank, the investigative arm of the Washington-based public lender, charging the Bank with derelict conduct in carrying out necessary "due diligence" about the project's impacts.

Security conditions in Nigeria show no sign of improvement. A new militant group in the Niger Delta, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), is tallying up the number of successful attacks against government security forces and multinational oil companies. MEND is a shadowy organization that first came to prominence on January 11, 2006 when it kidnapped oil workers based at Royal Dutch Shell's offshore EA oil rig. While the workers were released, MEND has proven to be a capable, armed organization. For instance, since January, MEND has killed at least 24 soldiers and police, kidnapped 13 oil workers and caused severe damage to several critical oil pipelines.

Elections have meaning for most people only in a democratic context because they lead to the choice of decision-makers by the majority of citizens. Elections and democracy are therefore inextricably linked. Three major challenges face the future of elections and democracy in Nigeria as we move towards the 2007 elections. The first challenge is that of the will and capacity of the National Assembly and INEC to keep to a road map that will lead us to free and fair elections in 2007. The second is the ambition of President Olusegun Obasanjo to change the Constitution to have a Third Term in office against the wishes of a majority of Nigerians. And the third is ensuring that the next elections are not as massively rigged as the previous ones were.

This report documents both exemplary and harmful practices affecting Muslim women in Northern Nigeria, and evaluates them according to Sharia. Based on a desk review, consultations with various stakeholders and a national conference the report spans a wide area and consists of diverse ethnic groups, most of whom are Muslim.

The BBC World Service Trust (WST) is running an HIV/AIDS mass media campaign in Nigeria, addressing young people between 15 and 24, encouraging them to adopt behaviours that would prevent them from HIV infection, and to reduce stigma. The campaign is using entertainment techniques to attract a wide youth audience on radio, TV and film.

The study examines strategies adopted to increase agricultural growth and improve food security in Nigeria by empowering women engaged in agricultural activities. Initiatives to empower women have largely failed since they have not been supported by appropriate technologies. Women’s effective participation is further constrained by limited access to land, capital and education. Urban agriculture faces similar problems as the rural sector.

An audit of Nigeria's oil industry showed on Tuesday discrepancies amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars between what oil companies say they paid the government and what authorities say they received. The auditors stopped short of suggesting what could have happened to the cash, but their report raises questions about accounting standards and corruption in the world's eighth biggest exporter of crude oil.

The Nigerian government must take the lead in ending discrimination against millions of "non-indigenes" - citizens who cannot show that their family roots are native to the community in which they live - in part to better secure the country's increasingly fragile unity, according to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) released recently. The 64-page report, "'They Do Not Own This Place': Government Discrimination Against 'Non-Indigenes' in Nigeria", charges that the legal division between "host" and "settler" communities - originally designed to preserve the traditions and cultural identity of most of Nigeria's more than 250 ethnic groups - has fed a growing sense of tension and conflict in many parts of the country.

The workshop content centers on Advocacy and Fundraising: The Advocacy part of the workshop is intended to be a hands-on experience focusing on designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating an advocacy for policy change campaigns.

Nigerian militants in the southern Delta region have rejected plans announced by President Olusegun Obasanjo to develop their region. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta also renewed its threat to continue oil installation attacks. It said the offer of thousands more jobs and a new motorway did not address their demands for more local control of oil wealth and demilitarisation.

Nigerian Health Minister Eyitayo Lambo Wednesday in Abuja launched a book documenting efforts in the prevention, care and treatment of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria in the past five years. The book titled "AIDS in Nigeria: A nation on the Threshold," is the brainchild of the US Harvard School of Public Health programme, AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN). It is the first major comprehensive documentation on the disease in a book form since HIV/AIDS was first reported in 1986 in the country.

Alfred Egbegi, publisher of the weekly newspaper "Izon Link", who was arrested by the police in Yenogoa, the Bayelsa state capital in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria on 12 April 2006, has been released from custody, but is now facing criminal charges in court. The publisher was arrested and charged over a story published in the Volume 7, Number 8 edition of the newspaper, carrying the headline "Ebebi cries out: Jonathan is stabbing me". The story alleged political intrigue involving the state governor, Mr. Goodluck Jonathan, and his deputy, Mr. Peremobowei Ebebi, over who would govern the state after the 2007 general elections.

Militia armed with guns, machetes, and bows and arrows killed about 25 people in three days in a land dispute in the central state of Plateau, authorities and witnesses said. The blackened shells of at least 20 houses could be seen on the outskirts of the deserted town of Namu, 100 km (75 miles) east of the capital Abuja, which has been at the centre of the dispute. Residents said the dispute was over a new state-run development area headquarters, which would create jobs and bring money to the area.

The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited must stop flaring gas in the Iwherekan community in Delta State by April 2007, the Nigerian High Court has ruled. The court has ordered Shell’s managing director in Nigeria and the Nigerian Minister for Petroleum Resources to appear in person before the judge in open court on May 31 in Benin City with detailed plans for putting gas flares out by April 2007.

The World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), in the framework of their joint programme, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, express their deep concern over a Bill that would introduce criminal penalties for public advocacy or associations supporting the rights of lesbian and gay people, as well as for relationships and marriage ceremonies between persons of the same sex. As a consequence, human rights defenders and organisations defending those rights will be at a greater risk of criminalisation.

Corruption and inequality have fed insurrection among impoverished youth in Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer. The tension is rising in the period before next year’s presidential election; at the same time, the oil from new wells is beginning to flow, reports this Le Monde Diplomatique article.