'150 bodies found' in wells after Nigerian massacre

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A dead body is carried away following violent clashes in Kuru Karama.

KANO, (Nigeria), Jan 23 (AFP): At least 150 bodies have been recovered from wells following Muslim-Christian clashes in central Nigeria in which the estimated death toll already stood at over 300, a village head and volunteers told AFP Saturday.
"So far we have picked 150 bodies from the wells. But 60 more people are still missing, said Umar Baza, head of Kuru Karama village near the city of Jos.
"We took an inventory of the displaced people from this village, sheltering in three camps and we realise that 60 people can still not be accounted for," he added, speaking by telephone.
Meanwhile: About 3,000 people marched through Lagos on Thursday to demand absent President Umaru Yar'Adua hand full powers to his deputy, as top lawyers pushed of an end to a power vacuum in Nigeria.
The crowd marched to the Lagos State Governor's office and handed in a letter demanding Yar'Adua, who has been in hospital in Saudi Arabia for two months, step down.
Opposition lawyers meanwhile petitioned the high court in Abuja to have his deputy Goodluck Jonathan sworn in with full powers, on the ground of Yar'Adua's "incapacity".
The president has spent nearly 60 days in Jeddah for treatment for acute pericarditis, an inflammation of the membrane covering the heart.
The demonstrators carried placards reading "Enough of the Offshore President" and "Go Umaru Go!".
"We have a ship now without a captain. A plane without a pilot," said Joe-Okei Odumakin, leader of Nigeria's Campaign for Democracy.
A similar rally was held in the capital Abuja last week, led by Nobel literature laureate Wole Soyinka.
Calls for Yar'Adua to step down or transfer power to Jonathan, the vice president, have mounted in recent weeks.
The high court ruled last week in a separate case that Jonathan can carry out presidential duties in Yar'Adua's absence without a formal transfer of power.
But top lawyers on Thursday asked the court to effectively extend the vice-president's powers to encompass those of acting head of state in the continued absence of Yar'Adua.
The lawyers from the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) maintained that Yar'Adua breached the constitution when he left the country two months ago without writing to inform parliament of his absence.
Nigeria's opposition has claimed Yar'Adua's continued absence though illness and lack of information on his condition has stalled government business and leaves a power vacuum in Africa's most populous nation.
"We are saying the court should declare that, even when there is an omission to write the letter, the vice-president is entitled to assume, under the doctrine of necessity, the functions of the president as acting president," said NBA lawyer Akin Olujimi.Thursday's high court hearing was one of three legal cases taken up by the opposition to force 58-year-old Yar'Adua, a northern Muslim, to hand over full powers to Jonathan, a southern Christian.
Justice Minister Michale Aondoaaka said the lawyers "have no power to ask the court to declare an acting president."
"Such powers were vested in the national assembly, which can only do so on the strength of a letter from the president," he added.
However, Nigeria's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Abdullah Aminchi, Thursday in Riyadh quoted Yar'Adua as saying that the vice president was in charge of the country in his absence.