A Nigerian rights campaigner has criticised 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.

Mr Sani said police had wrongly claimed that he and others had had no permit.

Mr 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 Mr Blair and Mr Bush.

"It was a peaceful protest," he told the BBC.

"I was officially invited to the banquet - so I wasn't going to throw any shoes. But the police came and used force to shove me into their vehicles along with about 80 others.

"They said we needed a permit - but according to the constitution all we have to do is write to the police and tell them about the protest. We had done that."

Election appeal

Former US President Bush and ex-UK Prime Minister Blair were attending a ceremony highlighting the achievements of 50 prominent Nigerians to mark 50 years since independence.

Former anti-corruption investigator Nuhu Ribadu was among the award-winners - though Mr Ribadu was not present as he fled Nigeria after being fired from his job.

Condoleezza Rice, the former US secretary of state, spoke at the ceremony to question Nigeria's progress in tackling corruption and to urge free and fair elections.

"The world is watching," she said.

"They are tracking the coming elections very closely. Nigerians demand that this democracy functions in a transparent way, that these elections are transparent."

Elections in Nigeria - at a local and national level - have been tainted by vote-rigging, electoral fraud, ballot stuffing and intimidation, the BBC's Caroline Duffield reports from Abuja.

Call for tolerance

Away from the banquet, in an interview with the BBC, Tony Blair urged Nigeria's political leaders to find a solution to the issue of outbursts of deadly violence in northern Nigeria.

"The single most important thing, is that the political leadership here tries to impose the right framework for co-existence," he said.

"There is no future in using religion as a source of conflict."

Rights groups estimate at least 13,500 people have been killed in clashes between Christian and Muslim communities in the past 10 years.

Hundreds of people were killed in Plateau State last month. Civilians were shot, burned and hacked to death, and in one village about 150 corpses were thrown into wells and sewers.

The local government faces accusations of stoking violence for political gain.

Mr Blair insisted that political and religious leaders bore a responsibility to bring about change.

"The faith community's got to play a part," he said.

"Part of its job is to stand up, to say 'Our religion is not going to be aimed at excluding the other person'."

He said he believed the solution would come from within Nigeria, rather than from outside intervention.