The governor of Lagos state in Nigeria has angrily rejected criticism from President Olusegun Obasanjo over the deteriorating state of law and order there.

The president has described the situation as intolerable and accused the governor, Bola Tinubu, of losing control.

He also implied that he might impose a state of emergency because of what he termed the failure of Mr Tinubu to take effective measures against a militant ethnic-Yoruba organisation the OPC, which has killed dozens of suspected criminals in vigilante actions and is blamed for attacks on police stations.

The governor said he was appalled by the criticism.

But, while it was true the police were undermanned, ill-equipped and demoralised, this was not his fault: under the current centralised system he didn't have sufficient powers to deal with these failings. Mr Tinubu said Lagos needed another twenty-thousand new police recruits to restore the situation.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service