11.   A Nigerian state announced Friday the creation of vigilante groups to maintain law and order, triggering a warning from rights groups of the dangers of mob rule.

12.   A dozen mainly Muslim northern Nigerian states have introduced some element of the strict Islamic legal code over the past two years.

13.   A top police officer, Adebola Ojomo, is leading a presidential security inquiry being carried out in six Nigerian states.

14.   Abdullahi, an ethnic Fulani man from the northern Nigerian state of Katsina, had, he said, done nothing wrong.

15.   An Islamic court judge in a northern Nigerian state has been flogged in public after being found guilty of drinking alcohol, court officials said Sunday.

16.   Angry youths burned down a police station in protest over ritual killings in the northern Nigerian state of Jigawa, a local radio reported Monday.

17.   At least seven Nigerian northern states have common borders with Niger.

18.   Thousands of commuters were stranded Wednesday as buses and taxis withdrew their services in a central Nigerian state in protest against fuel price hikes, Radio Nigeria reported.

19.   Under the strict Islamic or Sharia code, reintroduced in a dozen northern Nigerian states in the past two years, some hand amputations have already been carried out.

20.   It also said that the application of Islamic law by some Nigerian states was against fundamental human rights.