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"Irresponsible
journalism in Nigeria bears responsibility," said Obasanjo
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LAGOS,
November 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Nigerian President
Olusegun Obasanjo blamed an inflammatory newspaper article that
slandered Prophet Muhammad (Peace and prayers be upon him) for the
riots that killed more than 200 Nigerian citizens and drove the Miss
World beauty contest out of the country.
"Irresponsible
journalism in Nigeria bears responsibility. What happened obviously
could have happened at any time," he said late Monday, November
25, on CNN, blaming a Nigerian daily for stirring trouble with an
article on Miss World.
Riots
erupted in Kaduna last week after the newspaper This Day published an
offensive Miss World article in which it implied that Prophet Mohammed
(Peace and prayers be upon him) would have enjoyed the show.
The
government appealed for calm and assured Muslims that those
responsible for the article would be brought to book, for exceeding
the bounds of responsible journalism, BBC News Online reported.
This
Day has retracted the offending article and has published apologies.
The
chairman of the group that owns the Lagos-based paper suggested that a
computer glitch could have been to blame for the fact that the story
went to press in the first place.
Calm
returned to Kaduna Monday, but not before 220 people had been killed
in clashes between Muslims, Christians and the security services and
the Miss World pageant had pulled out of Nigeria for London.
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Tense
calm prevailed in Kaduna over the past 24 hours
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The
debacle has been greeted as a national humiliation by many Nigerian
commentators, but Obasanjo said he was "sorry that they had to
leave Nigeria… They were guests within our gates and we did
everything possible to show that we are good hosts and hostesses in
Nigeria."
The
immediate spark for the fighting in Kaduna and a brief violent protest
by Muslims in Abuja Friday were the result of the This Day article,
which many Nigerian Muslims found offensive.
Muslim
leaders have insisted that they found the very idea of hosting a
"parade of nudity" unacceptable, particularly as the beauty
queens arrived in Nigeria during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Some
observers have blamed the riots on increased tensions between Muslims
and Christians who object to 12 northern states reintroducing
Shari’a (Islamic Law).
But
Obasanjo said that under Nigeria's federal constitution, each state
had a right to make its own laws, adding: "Anybody who tried to
enforce a unity form of government in this land would destroy it
overnight."
Meanwhile,
Kaduna was reportedly peaceful overnight, officials and residents said
Tuesday, November 26, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"It's
been quiet since yesterday," said Maktar Sirajo, spokesman for
Kaduna State's governor. "Many arrests have been made. The people
will be brought to court today."
Kaduna's
assistant police commissioner for operations, Samuel Ogunbayode,
confirmed that no trouble occurred overnight, and that around 300
suspected rioters were in custody.
"Right
now, things have calmed down considerably," Nigerian Red Cross
president Emmanuel Ijewere told AFP. "Four people died overnight
of their injuries, bringing the total to around 220."
More
than 30,000 people fled their homes during the trouble, he said.
"We
have found that more people than we first thought were displaced. We
have counted 6,006 families, and there are an average of five people
per family," he said.
"We
hope that today people will begin to return home, as things are a lot
calmer," he added.
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