March 8, 2000
Paul Ejime
PANA Correspondent
LAGOS, Nigeria (PANA) - Security has been stepped up in Nigeria's northern state of Sokoto where authorities have closed down all schools following Tuesday's violence triggered by students' street protests in support of the introduction of the Islamic Sharia law.
Moslem students of the Uthman Dan Fodio University in Sokoto staged the protest, reportedly hijacked by rampaging youths, who destroyed and burnt property, including churches.
Casualty figures were not immediately available and state officials said the situation was under control Wednesday.
Sokoto is the home of former President Shehu Shagari, who has spoken out against the Council of State's order to suspend the introduction of Sharia in the country's states.
It shares borders with Zamfara state, which first introduced Sharia in October.
The Zamfara decision provoked a national controversy and foreshadowed the eruption of bloody clashes between Christians and Moslems in nearby Kaduna state two weeks ago.
The event has triggered reprisal attacks against northerners in south-eastern Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the governors of the five south-eastern states have condemned the alleged unprovoked attacks against Igbos during the sectarian violence in the north.
"We condemn it in its entirety, the unprovoked and unwarranted attacks and killings of easterners in Kaduna," the governors said.
"We cannot again tolerate any situation where easterners are killed without any provocation and any further attack on easterners will compel us to re-assess our faith in the continued existence of Nigeria as a corporate entity."
The governors also endorsed a call for "confederation as the basis of our continued existence in corporate Nigeria."
Observers recall that alleged ethnic genocide against Igbos forced eastern Nigeria to secede in 1966 under the 'Republic of Biafra', sparking a 30-month civil war which ended with the crushing of the secession in January 1970.
An estimated two million people, mainly Igbos, died in that civil war.
Reacting to the growing sentiments of ethnic nationalism and the lingering Sharia crisis, presidential spokesman Doyin Okupe insisted that Nigeria remains an indivisible unit.
"What we are passing through," he said, "are the initial trauma and pains that accompany the birth of democracy," a reference to the fact that Nigeria embraced democracy 10 months ago after 15 years of military rule.
In a related development, authorities in the south-western state of Osun have imposed a dust-to-dawn curfew in the area, following four days of communal clashes in Ile-Ife between the ethnic Ife and Modakeke communities over a land dispute.
Tension remained high in the area, amid tight security in the aftermath of the violence, which has reportedly claimed up to 30 lives, and more than 100 houses set ablaze.