Rioters have burned down buildings belonging to two key supporters of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, in protest over alleged ballot-rigging in parliamentary elections, witnesses and a local reporter said Wednesday.
Opposition supporters in two towns in the northern state of Katsina protested on Monday and Tuesday against what they saw as ruling party attempts to fix the results of Saturday’s parliamentary elections, they said.
It is the first reported fighting since Saturday’s disputed poll, which the opposition All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) has rejected, claiming the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had engaged in ”massive rigging”.
Cotton trader Salisu Dodo (32) said that rioters in the town of Malumfashi had burned down the local headquarters of the Nigerian electoral commission and the home of Halliru Kafur.
Kafur is a close aide of Katsina’s governor and a supporter of the ruling PDP, which is on course for a healthy victory in the poll according to partial results released since Saturday.
Local radio reporter Kabir Isa said that Katsina state police commissioner Dauda Fakai had given a news conference on Tuesday in which he confirmed the fighting, and reported a second outburst.
In the Katsina town of Kankiya, rioters burned down a shopping centre belonging to Lawal Kaita, a former governor of the region and an important local ally of Obasanjo, the commissioner said.
No-one was killed in either protest, but 54 people were arrested after the first and five after the second, he said, according to Isa.
On Saturday Nigeria is due to go to the polls again for presidential and state gubernatorial elections which are seen as the next key test of Nigeria’s fragile four-year-old democracy. – Sapa-AFP