Suspected agitators arrested as calm returns to Lagos

LAGOS, Nigeria - Security forces on Thursday arrested leaders of a banned nationalist group, which has been accused of instigating recent ethnic violence that left more than 100 dead in Lagos.

''We have arrested the big fish,'' Lagos state police commissioner Mike Okiro told the News Agency of Nigeria, referring to leaders of the Yoruba group. He would not say what specific charges they face.

Dr. Frederick Fasehun, the most prominent leader of the Odudua Peoples Congress, and at least two other officials in the Yoruba movement were arrested, police said. Calm returned to neighborhoods watched by joint police and military patrols.

The government outlawed the Odudua Peoples Congress and ''similar organizations'' Wednesday night, declaring them ''unacceptable and a serious threat to the peace and security'' of the country.

The ban followed days of rioting sparked by the killing of a Hausa guard in Lagos on Sunday. The guard's relatives blamed his death on members of the Odudua Peoples Congress, who in turn claimed they were pursuing suspected criminals.

Fighting between the northern-based, predominantly Muslim Hausas and the southern, mostly Christian Yorubas spread rapidly to other neighborhoods. Most of those killed are believed to be Hausas, police said.

Nigeria's ethnic and religious divisions often explode into violence. Thousands of people have died in ethnic fighting over the past year.

On Wednesday, Hausa cattle sellers attacked Yoruba butchers at the city's main slaughterhouse and cattle market, killing several people. Yorubas launched revenge attacks on Hausa settlements in the main business district, where banks, offices and stores closed.

Police have confirmed 60 killings in the recent violence, but Nigeria's Red Cross said Wednesday it had collected more than 100 bodies.

About 20,000 terrified residents - most of them Hausas - have fled their homes, seeking refuge at police stations and military barracks, Red Cross workers said.

''I will not go back to my house until I am sure that we are safe,'' said Musa Ahmed, a sugar cane seller staying at a barracks with his wife and four children.

More than 200 people have been arrested, police said Thursday. They said 10 police officers were injured, 24 houses were set ablaze and dozens of cars were burned.

The Odudua Peoples Congress is composed of human rights activists, Yoruba tribal leaders and radical youths who advocate a separate state in southwestern Nigeria for Yorubas.

Thousands of Hausas marched through the northern town of Minna on Thursday to protesting the killings in Lagos. No violence was reported.