NIGERIA’S presidential election draws to a tense close, acts of violence across the country are set to cast a dark shadow over the process irrespective of the outcome.
Local news reports identified that three people have been in killed in Ngalda, a town in northern Yobe state, when suspected Boko Haram gunmen opened fire on a polling station.
Attacks have also been reported in Gombe state in the country’s northeast.
Eight people, including a candidate for the House of Assembly, were killed in an attack in Dukku in Gombe state, an APC spokesman told the press.
The fatalities have been reported to be at the minimum of 15 according to Reuters while the Associated Press reports as many as 39 have been killed.
An election official, speaking anonymously to The Guardian Nigeria, said: “We could hear the gunmen shouting, ‘Didn’t we warn you about staying away from (the) election?’”
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video message last month that the militants would disrupt the election, which they see as “un-Islamic”.
“This election will not be held even if we are dead. Even if we are not alive, Allah will not allow you to do it,” he said.
The threat and a spate of suicide attacks and bombings against “soft” targets in northern Nigeria have prompted the authorities to impose tight security across the country and formed the reason why the election had been postponed in the first instance.
“They set fire to all the election materials we abandoned as we escaped,” the election official added.
The acts of violence come as an expected marking of further political insurgency that could follow subject to the outcome of the elections.
Nearly 70 million of Nigeria’s 173 million citizens were registered to vote Saturday (March 28).
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced in the afternoon that the vote would be extended to Sunday (March 29) in areas where polling had been disrupted or in some instances yet to start.
In a joint statement, the US Secretary of State John Kerry and UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said: “Our governments welcome the largely peaceful vote on 28 March. The Nigerian people have shown a commendable determination to register their vote and choose their leaders.
“So far, we have seen no evidence of systemic manipulation of the process. But there are disturbing indications that the collation process – where the votes are finally counted – may be subject to deliberate political interference. This would contravene the letter and spirit of the Abuja Accord, to which both major parties committed themselves.
“The Governments of the United States and the United Kingdom would be very concerned by any attempts to undermine the independence of the Electoral Commission (INEC), or its Chairman, Prof Jega; or in any way distort the expressed will of the Nigerian people.”
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