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Background Report: The Destruction of Odi and Rape in Choba |
 | | Before the deadline could expire, soldiers from the Nigerian army moved into Odi, a community of perhaps 15,000 people, engaged in a brief exchange of fire with the young men alleged to be responsible for the deaths of the policemen, and proceeded to raze the town. |
 | | Since there were maybe twenty to thirty youths, perhaps fifteen or twenty of them armed with automatic rifles, there was little the traditional leader and other authorities in the town could do, though they called the young men into meetings and urged them to cease their activities or leave the town. |
 | | Both the traditional leader, the amananaowei, King Thunder Efeke Bolou II, and a group of Odi indigenes resident in Port Harcourt wrote to the Governor Alamieyeseigha on November 1, informing him that "the security situation [in Odi] is, to put it mildly, frightening, disturbing and horrifying. |
| www.hrw.org /press/1999/dec/nibg1299.htm (4596 words) |
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