February 23, 2000
Paul Ejime
PANA Correspondent
LAGOS, Nigeria (PANA) - Nigeria's Federal Executive Council and the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the National Assembly, held separate meetings Wednesday on the two-day religious violence that has reportedly claimed up to 50 lives in the northern city of Kaduna.
Uneasy calm was reported Wednesday in the city, where the movement of people have restricted with troops patrolling the streets, and under instruction to shoot trouble makers on sight.
Briefing journalists on the outcome of the Executive Council meeting, Information Minister Dapo Sarumi said troops were deployed after it was discovered that the mob was moving toward one of the country's oil refineries in Kaduna.
Intelligence reports had also indicated that students of the Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, near Kaduna, were mobilising to join the fighting between the Christian and Moslem groups over the introduction of the Islamic Sharia legal system in the state.
Sarumi said security reports reaching Abuja, indicated that the situation was now calm after the violence, which erupted Monday, had continued till Tuesday.
But the minister did not rule out the possibility of a hidden agenda by the perpetrators of the violence.
"Some people are packaging something to look like a Sharia declaration," he added.
On the legal implications of Sharia in Nigeria, which is secular by constitution, Sarumi said it was the responsibility of Nigerians, the Bar Association and the Christian Associations to initiate legal challenge to the system.
"It will not be politically wise for the executive arm the to initiate such a process because it would be accused of bias," he added.
At a special session on the security situation in Kaduna, the House of representatives condemned the carnage and called on the federal government to take all necessary measures to restore law and order.
Representative Binta Koji of the opposition All Peoples Party, Kaduna state, urged that urgent steps be taken to prevent the violence from spreading to other parts of the country.
"This is not the time to be fighting one another based on religion," he declared.
His colleague, Garba Matazu from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, also from Kaduna, expressed a similar view, adding that offenders should be brought to book.
Several political and religious leaders in the country have denounced the violence, with President Olusegun Obasanjo calling for restraint.