The Bakassi Boys: Legitimization of Murder and Torture

By HRW | Published May 2002

Setting themselves up as self-appointed judges, juries and executioners, the Bakassi Boys have killed scores of people after putting them through their own form of “trial,” resulting in apparently arbitrary decisions as to the individual’s guilt or innocence, often on the basis of fabricated evidence, evidence extracted under torture, or no evidence at all. The Bakassi Boys claim to use “magic” to ascertain whether individuals are guilty or innocent; the premises from which they operate are adorned with symbols and objects related to this belief. The chairman of the Abia Vigilante Services, Onwuchekwa Ulu, told CLEEN that they had foolproof, secret methods of finding out who was a criminal.66 Some of those “judged” to be innocent were released, although several, such as Chief
Okonkwo, were later re-arrested and killed. Many of those “judged” to be guilty were brutally murdered without any other form of process, sometimes in public, in front of large crowds.


Military Revenge in Benue: A Population Under Attack

By HRW | Published April 2002

Among the various towns and villages targeted in the military operation in Benue, the largest number ofpeople were killed in the village of Gbeji. This was one of the first places targeted by the army and the population was taken completely off guard. Between 150 and 160 people were killed there, including at least four women and eighteen children, some as young as twelve years old; among those missing were children as young as five and seven. Some of the victims’ bodies were reportedly so badly burnt that they could not be identified. Human Rights Watch visited Gbeji in December 2001 and spoke to survivors and witnesses there; we also visited the sites of several mass graves where residents of Gbeji had buried their dead. One of the most shocking aspects of the events in Benue was the federal government’s response, or lack of response, to the news that soldiers of the Nigerian army had massacred civilians and destroyed towns and villages. Senior government officials were quick to condemn the killing of the nineteen soldiers. President Obasanjo and Vice-President Atiku Abubakar made several public statements urging that no effort be spared to track down the perpetrators.


The Niger Delta: No Democratic Dividend

By HRW | Published October 2002

The town of Odi, in Bayelsa State, was destroyed in a military operation in November 1999, in which hundreds of people were likely killed, following the killing of twelve policemen by a gang of youths.6 9   Following the killings of the policemen,  President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote to the governor of Bayelsa,  Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, threatening to declare a state of emergency if those responsible for the murders were not apprehended within two weeks —though the police force is a federally controlled body in Nigeria. Before the deadline could expire, soldiers from the Nigerian army moved into Odi, a community of 15,000 people or more, engaged in an exchange of fire with the young men alleged to be responsible for the deaths of the policemen, and proceeded to raze the town. The troops occupied the town for around ten days, and demolished every single building, barring the bank, the Anglican church and the health clinic, and left graffiti that included ethnic slurs and reflected views that the town and the whole Ijaw ethnic group must be punished for the crimes committed by
their sons.  There has been no thorough investigation of the destruction of Odi by government authorities, no prosecutions of any soldiers involved in the abuses committed, no government effort to compensate the victims or rebuild the town.  The officer in charge of the operation has reportedly been promoted


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What Ails the American Economy?
By Kevin Phillips, Barry Gewen
28 Feb 2009

Even if his pessimism doesn’t seem wholly warranted, a sense of foreboding surely is, which is why his warnings have to be taken seriously. Mr. Phillips writes that the inventors and marketers of the new financial instruments didn’t entirely understand them. An executive of Fidelity International says a panicky feeling has set in on Wall Street because no one knows where the risks really are. The finance minister of France observes that investments may have reached such a level of complexity that no one can assess them. And Charles R. Morris, in his own gloomy book, “The Trillion Dollar Meltdown,” reports that even Citigroup’s chief financial officer “did not know how to value his holdings.