BBC News Online: World: Africa

Human rights commission opens in Nigeria

A commission to investigate human rights abuses in Nigeria over the past thirty-five years has opened in the capital, Abuja.

The head of the panel a retired judge, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa said it had received ten-thousand petitions alleging abuses from members of the public.

However, he said, the commission would concentrate on only the two-hundred cases which appeared to involve gross abuses of human rights.

He said a list would be made available tomorrow at the start of the public hearings. People will be invited to answer charges against them, and witnesses will be called.

The inquiry -- which is modelled on South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission -- has no power to sentence, but can determine responsibility.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service