DATE=7/28/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=NIGERIA VIOLENCE (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-252257
BYLINE=JOHN PITMAN
DATELINE=ABIDJAN
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Nigerian newspaper reports say more than 100
people were killed in ethnic violence in eastern
Nigeria this week. However, V-O-A West Africa
correspondent John Pitman reports police sources in
the area say no such clashes have occurred.
TEXT: The first reports of trouble in Anambra State
were published Wednesday in two newspapers based in
Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos.
However, by late afternoon, police sources in Awka,
the capital of Anambra State, were dismissing the
reports as "exaggerations," or denying them
altogether.
In an interview with V-O-A Wednesday afternoon, the
police commissioner in Awka said everything was quiet
in Anambra.
In its report Wednesday morning, the Vanguard
newspaper said up to 120 people were killed on Monday,
when a land dispute between members of the Aguleri and
Umuleri ethnic groups turned violent.
Details about the scope or location of the violence
were not immediately available, but Anambra State is
just over 300 kilometers east of Lagos.
The Reuters news agency says travelers from the area
reported trouble around the town of Otoucha --
northwest of Awka -- but these accounts have not
been independently confirmed.
Journalists contacted by V-O-A in neighboring Enugu
State also reported hearing of scattered unrest in
Anambra State. But like the police in Awka, they,
too, expressed doubt about the size of the published
death toll.
Anambra State was the scene of ethnic violence between
the Aguleri and Umuleri in April. But the region has
been relatively quiet since then, and the two groups
were reported to have signed a peace agreement earlier
this month.
/// REST OPT ///
These conflicting reports about ethnic violence in
eastern Nigeria follow 10 days of ethnic tension and
clashes in southwestern and northern Nigeria. More
than 120 people have died in battles between members
of the Hausa and Yoruba ethnic groups, in separate
clashes in the northern city of Kano and the
southwestern city of Shagamu. (SIGNED)
NEB/JP/JWH/WTW
28-Jul-1999 14:40 PM LOC (28-Jul-1999 1840 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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