Urhobo Historical Society
HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATIONS' RESPONSES TO PRESIDENTIAL ULTIMATUM, INVASION OF BAYELSA STATE, AND DESTRUCTION OF ODI TOWN IN THE NIGER DELTA
Since the days of military rule, particularly its barbaric forms under Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha, Human Rights organizations have sprung up in Nigeria in order to protect Nigerians and their human rights from governmental terror. Many groups of Nigerians have grown to trust the Human Rights Community as the lifeline to elementary truth in circumstances where governments tell brazen lies because they cannot be challenged. In the Niger Delta, the work of Human Rights organizations have been particularly significant. Human Rights Watch, an international organization, and Environmental Rights Action (ERA), a homegrown Nigerian organization based in Benin City, are major safeguards for Deltans who are constantly being harassed by agents of Nigeria's Federal Government and consequences of oil production in the Niger Delta.

The responses of the Human Rights Community to President Obasanjo's invasion of Bayelsa State and destruction of Odi Town have been significant. In the following selections we feature responses from local Nigerian Human Rights organizations as well as those from the international Human Rights Community. They are presented in the order of date of authorship.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH CALLS ON OBASANJO 
TO WITHDRAW TROOPS FROM THE NIGER DELTA
November 22, 1999
 CENTRE FOR DEMOCRACY & DEV. PLEADS WITH OBASANJO: 
"DON'T MILITARISE THE NIGER DELTA"
November 22, 1999
 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL EXPRESSES FEARS OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AS TROOPS POUR INTO NIGERIA'S NIGER DELTA 
November 23, 1999
 EUROPE'S HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP INITIATIVE PRO AFRIKA WRITES OBASANJO, DENOUNCING DEPLOYMENT OF TROOPS IN THE NIGER DELTA
November 24, 1999
 "THE PEOPLE MUST RECLAIM THEIR HUMANITY"
Nnimmo Bassey, Environmental Rights Action (ERA)
November 25, 1999
 RAZING OF ODI TOWN AND BEHAVIOUR OF NIGERIAN SOLDIERS ARE THE GREAT ISSUES
By Ayo Obe, President, Civil Liberties Organization of Nigeria
December 2, 1999
CULTURAL DILEMMAS OF WOMEN RAPED BY SOLDIERS IN CHOBA
 NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN'S SOCIETIES  (NCWS) SAY: IN PRECURSOR TO ODI,  OCCUPYING NIGERIAN SOLDIERS RAPED NIGERIAN WOMEN IN CHOBA, ANOTHER NIGER DELTA TOWN
Culled From The Guardian (December 3, 1999)
 Human Rights Watch Background Paper:
"THE DESTRUCTION OF ODI AND RAPE IN CHOBA"
December 22, 1999

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