Below are the images that the Obasanjo era will best be remembered by.

Thousands of other people were reported to have fled the clashes, while crops, livestock and houses were destroyed. Most of the displaced, particularly women and children, have taken refuge in safer areas within the state. Others were said to have fled into neighbouring Benue State.

"The fighting, which broke out on Monday in Loko and Udege districts of the state, quickly spread, affecting about eight villages," Hashidu Adamu, an official of the Nasarawa State Ministry of Local Government, told IRIN.

Umaru Suleiman, the Nasarawa State police commissioner, was reported by local media as saying that urgent measures had been taken to bring the situation under control. Several teams of a special anti-riot division of the police had been sent into the area to restore order, he said.

Nasarawa State last year witnessed widespread communal violence between Tivs and Azeris following a land dispute. Hundreds of people were killed and tens of thousands displaced. About 50,000
Tivs who were forced to flee the fighting took refuge in Benue State, which has a majority Tiv population. Most of them are yet to return.

The situation of displaced people in the volatile central region further deteriorated in the wake of clashes between Tivs and Jukuns in neighbouring Taraba State in October and army massacres in reprisal for the killing of 19 soldiers by Tiv militiamen.

A group named the Tiv National Consultative Forum (TNCF) early this week called on President Olusegun Obasanjo to withdraw soldiers deployed in the region, whom they accused of brutalising Tiv people. The group also vowed to defend the ethnic group from any further attacks by using over 120,000 retired Nigerian soldiers of Tiv origin.

"We have resolved to take our destiny in our hands to protect and preserve the people without minding the consequences with effect from now," Godwin Dab-Adzuana, president of TNCF told a news conference in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. "Those who have refused or ignored our pleas and tears must be prepared to take responsibility for the full consequences of our action henceforth," he added.

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More police reinforcements soon arrived in the town and all that is known about this latest assault on Danja is that hundreds, perhaps thousands of people have fled the town.

A BBC reporter who tried to enter the town said he was prevented from doing so by tear-gas and the surrounding confusion.

These are unstable times in Nigeria; the security forces have a difficult task containing the all-too-frequent outbreaks of violence across the country.

But sometimes, despite a return to civilian rule two and a half years ago, the police and the army still appear to act as if they are answerable to no one but themselves.

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I guess infidels are preparing to stone Safiya in Sokoto too right ? Infidels started the fight and almajiri morons took over and killed themselves in Katsina, how smart of the faithfull.Talk about wasted Biafran resources and I think of the cost of trying to educate Adam and his ilk.

The clashes were said to have broken out on Monday when armed militants attempted to board an offshore oil rig near Brass Island, just off the Atlantic coast. "The naval contingent based at the Brass facilities of Agip oil company responded to a distress call from the rig and engaged the militants in a shoot-out," Nimi Eke-Spiff, a resident of the island, told IRIN. He said at least seven people, including five of the militants and two members of the navy, were reported killed during the incidents.

Other residents of the region reported that further clashes occurred on Tuesday when security forces stormed the nearby community of Lilama in search of boats which the youths had allegedly taken from an oil company. An unspecified number of people died as armed militants exchanged fire with the government forces. Hundreds of people were said to have fled the area.

However, Colonel Felix Chukwuma, the military spokesman in Lagos, denied that any military operations had taken place recently in the region. "I'm not aware that the army was involved in any operation as described in the region," he told journalists on Thursday.

The affected area is part of the Niger Delta where, where over the past decade, armed militants have frequently attacked oil facilities, taking hostages and disrupting operations, to back demands for amenities and more access to the oil wealth generated from their region.

[ENDS]

Why argue when the thing speaks for itself!

I am surprised that some people refuse to think outside the nigeria-framework. That is simply insincere and dishonest.

If one-Nigeria is truly your conviction, please convince me with reasoning (and not the bullet). Persuade me with the great rationale behind the Nigeria-State that I may have missed.

All I see with this one-Nigeria rubbish is dogmatism and rigidity! Without flexibility you break. One-Nigeria will break!

And your one-Nigeria dogma will end up with the other dogmas of her kind; in the dustbin of history!!