Militia and vigilante violence continues to pose a real threat to security in Nigeria, especially in the period leading up to elections in April 2003, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. One of the more notorious groups is the O'odua People's Congress (OPC), an organization active in the southwest, which has killed or injured hundreds of people over the last few years. The 58-page report, "The OPC: Fighting Violence with Violence," provides detailed accounts of killings and other abuses by the OPC since the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo came to power in 1999. An organization that promotes self determination for the Yoruba ethnic group, the OPC is also part ethnic militia and part vigilante group. It has cashed in on a growing sense of disenfranchisement among the population and has taken advantage of the inability of the police force to maintain law and order. Some of these killings occurred in the context of ethnic conflicts, for example in the Idi-Araba area of Lagos in February 2002 when OPC members and other Yoruba clashed with members of the Hausa ethnic group and more than seventy people were killed. However, OPC members have been victims as well as perpetrators of human rights abuses. The report describes the brutal response of the police, which has resulted in the extrajudicial execution, arbitrary arrest, torture and prolonged pre-trial detention of hundreds of suspected OPC members.