NIGERIA: HANDS OFF CAIN RELAUNCHES AND GIVES SUPPORT TO THE APPEAL OF NIGERIAN NOBEL PRIZE WINNER WOLE SOYINKA

Hands Off Cain, which sustains the appeal made yesterday by the Christian leaders of Nigeria urging the federal government to take precautionary measures for the Christian community by calling on the Italian government and the European Union to take action, re-launches today the hard line stance taken by Nobel Literature prize winner Wole Soyinka (see www.handsoffcain.org and www.nessunotocchicaino.it).Soyinka sent to "the Guardian" editorial staff in New York a statement which said: "Deputy Governor Shinkafi’s call for the death of a Nigerian citizen, under a so-called Fatwa, makes him a common criminal who should be hauled up before the courts and charged with incitement to murder."Let this ’elected official’ understand that very few people in the Nigerian nation consider him - or indeed his governor boss who is unquestionably implicated in this latest outrage - as being possessed of one drop of spirituality. These are cynical manipulators of religious sensibilities who, when all the facts are known, may yet come to trial for the many hate crimes that have been launched against the citizens of this nation." The writer, who in 1986 won the Nobel prize in Literature also stated that: "President Olusegun Obasanjo must unambiguously call this man to order. If he cannot defend the constitution he is sworn to uphold, he must make a public declaration to that effect so that we understand once and for all that we are living in a country without law, where every group and every individual must make their own."Hands Off Cain, together with the Radical Party, also appealed to the Nigerian President to accept the security and judiciary requests raised yesterday by Nigerian Christian leaders. Hands Off Cain and the Radical Party asked the Italian government and those of the European Union to support President Obasanjo in his efforts, which are becoming ever-more difficult, to ensure freedom of religion, security and peaceful cohabitation between all ethnic and religious groups. CNN will tomorrow transmit for the first time on global television the documentary made by Nexta-media during the Hands Off Cain expedition to Nigeria in October.