In Nigeria, robbers let their victims know they're coming
July 12, 2001
By TODD PITMAN
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) _ Bolanle Ijikelly wasn't too surprised when armed robbers broke through the wall of her apartment with a sledgehammer one night last month and started carting away her valuables.
The week before, they'd sent her entire apartment block a note to let everyone know they'd be stopping by.
Crime Stories
Hollywood Dreams
Film industry booms in Nigeria _ on home video
August 10, 2001
By TODD PITMAN
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) _ The film set is somebody's living room, rented out for the day. There are stains on the rug, beer bottles on the table, and three actors on the couch, sweating in the afternoon heat.
Somewhere outside a generator is sputtering away, struggling to provide electricity to a camcorder and two bright stage lights that keep growing dim.
Radio Lagos
In Nigeria, American disc jockey winning fans with bluntness on Lagos radio station
July 16, 2001
By TODD PITMAN
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) _ From the air conditioned heart of a place he calls Fantasy Island, American disc jockey Dan Foster is bouncing hip-hop grooves on radio waves to millions of listeners in the sixth-largest city on earth.
A lot of people tuned to his early morning drive-time radio show on 96.9 Cool FM are trapped in their cars, stuck in traffic jams so bad the police are racing down freeways the wrong way to get ahead.
His is in-your-face, American-style radio, but the 40-year-old San Francisco-born DJ is a long way from home.
Escaping Lagos
Taking to the water to escape the teeming slums of sub-Saharan Africa's largest metropolis
November 23, 2003
By TODD PITMAN
LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) _ In the center of sub-Saharan Africa's largest city, hand-carved canoes slip across a lagoon, cruising gently through a cramped maze of two-story bamboo houses perched on stilts above the water.
Fishermen standing at the backs of pirogues seem to walk across the waves, dipping 15-foot poles into the shallow sea to propel themselves forward.
It's Nigeria's version of the canals of Venice _ with trash. Part slum, part fishing village, Makoko has been expanding for decades, its thousands of residents spreading out over the Lagos Lagoon.
The Sharia Gap
Nigerian Muslims support harsh Islamic law punishments, but critics say poor suffer most
Oct. 1, 2003
By Todd Pitman
KANO, Nigeria (AP) _ Their crimes were small: One man stole a goat, another a cow, another two bicycles. Their punishments were harsh: Each had a hand chopped off by order of Islamic courts.