DATE=2/8/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=NIGERIA / SOKOTO (L-O)
NUMBER=2-259997
BYLINE=JOHN PITMAN
DATELINE=SOKOTO
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Calm has returned to the northern Nigerian
city of Sokoto, after a student demonstration in favor
of Islamic Sharia law on Tuesday turned violent. In
the wake of the riot, the city's university has been
closed indefinitely and some local Christians are
thinking about leaving. V-O-A's John Pitman reports
from Sokoto.
TEXT: Administrators at the Usmanu Danfodiyo
University closed the campus on Tuesday, in hopes of
discouraging a Muslim student group from demonstrating
in favor of Sharia law.
After watching several other Nigerian cities
experience bloody sectarian violence over the last two
weeks, university officials say they acted to prevent
the same thing from happening here in Sokoto.
The students had promised to hold a peaceful
demonstration. But eyewitnesses say after the campus
was closed some of the protesters built barricades out
of burning tires, and began throwing rocks.
Other protesters took gasoline into a church and set
it on fire. Its burned-out frame could be seen on
Wednesday. Christian businessmen who work near the
church say the protesters also attacked several
Christian stores.
The violence died down after police intervened with
tear gas. Three people were reportedly killed during
the riot, including one who was apparently shot by
police.
It has been impossible to confirm this death toll,
however. Local journalists say details of the
violence are being withheld by government officials in
the interest of maintaining public order. /// OPT
/// A police spokesman told V-O-A on Wednesday that
all inquiries into the incident would have to be
passed through the national police headquarters in
Nigeria's capital, Abuja. /// END OPT ///
Sokoto was calm on Wednesday, but heavily armed police
units could be seen at strategic intersections near
the university. Most Christian-owned stores remained
closed, and one businessman told V-O-A that some in
the city's large ethnic Ibo community were considering
leaving the city.
"We are always the target when things go wrong in the
north," said the businessman, who asked not to be
identified. The man said he was thinking about
leaving Sokoto, partly because he believes the police
were too slow to intervene when the rioters started
burning the church. "The police had information that
this was going on," he said, "but they did not provide
security in time."
Thousands of Christian Ibos have already fled other
northern cities, like Kaduna, where violence has
flared recently. A similar exodus of Muslim
northerners has been registered in the south, where
Christian militants have carried out revenge killings
against Muslims.
/// REST OPT ///
This cycle of violence has its roots in several
northern states' efforts to introduce the strict
Sharia penal code - a move Christians have opposed on
the grounds it could interfere with their own
constitutional right to worship freely.
Muslim supporters of Sharia say the Christian fears
are groundless, and have vowed to press forward with
the its full implementation. However, in the wake of
the killings in Kaduna and elsewhere, some pro-Sharia
state governors have agreed to tone down their
rhetoric. On Tuesday, the governor of Zamfara state,
one of the leading supporters of Sharia law, said he
would not make any further statements about Sharia
until the end of the Muslim pilgrimage season, or
Hajj, later this month. (SIGNED)
NEB/JP/ENE/gm
08-Mar-2000 17:27 PM EDT (08-Mar-2000 2227 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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