Militia leaders arrested again
2005-11-16 11:18
Lagos - Nigerian police have rearrested the rival leaders of a militant group after a court freed them of murder charges, a police spokesperson said on Wednesday.
"They were picked up from Kirikiri prison yesterday afternoon for further investigations. They are now in our custody," a spokesperson for the Federal Intelligence Bureau, Alagbon, Lagos, told AFP.
He said the rearrest followed new information at the disposal of the police linking Frederick Faseun and Gani Adams, rival faction leaders of the banned Odua Peoples Congress (OPC), with recent unrest in the city.
Justice Sybil Nwanka of Lagos High Court on Monday ordered the two leaders to be released from prison after the prosecution was unable to link them directly to the bloody fighting at the Iyana-Ipaja area of the city.
The OPC was set up by Faseun in 1994 to defend the interests of the 40-million-strong Yoruba ethnic group but a year later a more militant faction led by Adams split from the group.
Over the years the OPC has been implicated in many acts of political and ethnic violence, and has become notorious for its own brand of brutal law enforcement in several Yoruba communities.
The enmity between the two factions spilled over into violence last month when OPC militants battled for control of lucrative Lagos bus routes, leaving at least three dead.