A leading Nigerian opposition politician was shot dead at his home on Wednesday by unidentified gunmen, it what is the most high-profile killing yet in a troubled election campaign, police said.
Opposition party officials said Harry Marshall, who is coordinating former military leader Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign in southern Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta, was shot dead by their enemies.
”He was shot dead this morning, obviously by our opponents … it’s too early to say who exactly,” said Buhari’s campaign representative, Sam Nda-Isaiah.
Nnamdi Olebara, a representative for Buhari’s All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), said: ”It looks like a targeted annihilation of ANPP stalwarts.”
A police official, who asked not to be named, confirmed the killing and said an investigation had been launched. Next month Nigeria will hold its first national elections since the country’s 1999 return to civil rule, and Buhari is regarded as
the main challenger to President Olusegun Obasanjo’s re-election bid.
Marshall had been a leading figure in People’s Democratic Party (PDP) but decamped last year to the opposition during a dispute with the governor of his home region, Rivers State. Buhari was due to travel to the southern city of Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on Saturday to attend a campaign rally that was to have been organised by the murdered man.
Dozens of Nigerians have been killed in a spate of political violence in recent months, raising fears that the elections, which are seen as a key test of Nigeria’s young democracy, might be marred or disrupted.
The killing will raise security fears ahead not only of Buhari’s planned visit to Port Harcourt, but also of an Obasanjo rally due to be held on Thursday in the northern city of Kano. – Sapa-AFP