Nigeria Bush-Blair protest arrests condemned

A Nigerian rights campaigner has criticized the police for arresting him and his colleagues during a protest over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Shehu Sani and 80 others held a peaceful rally to coincide with a visit to Abuja by former leaders of the US and UK -- George W. Bush and Tony Blair. The former Western leaders were in the city for a conference marking 50 years of Nigerian independence. Sani said police had wrongly claimed that he and others had had no permit. Sani, who was freed on bail, said all the requirements had been met and he called the arrests "very wrong". He and his colleagues, who have also been released on bail, said they wanted to draw attention to the human rights legacy of Blair and Bush.