About 10 000 security agents, including police officers, were deployed on Saturday to ensure the smooth running of presidential primaries of Nigeria’s ruling party, a police spokesperson said.
About 5 000 delegates of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) were to converge in Abuja to choose their presidential candidate for 2007 to succeed the incumbent Olusegun Obasanjo.
With his second four-year term coming to an end, Obasanjo is constitutionally barred from standing again when Nigerians vote in April.
”Around 10 000 officers have taken up positions at the convention venue and all strategic points in the federal capital. It is a highly coordinated security network of police, SSS [State Security Service], Federal Road Safety and the Civil Defence Corps to ensure a hitch-free exercise,” spokesperson Haz Iwendi said.
He said men from the police anti-bomb unit were at the venue. ”Our helicopters will also hover round the city as part of the general security measures.”
No fewer than about 30 party members had sought to be the PDP’s presidential candidate, but many were under mounting pressure to step down for Governor Umar Musa Yar’Adua of the northern state of Katsina.
The PDP, which won national elections in 1999 when the military ceded power to civilians, controls 28 of Nigeria’s 36 states and has a majority in the national Parliament. The party was again victorious in 2003 and has promised to win again next year.
On Friday, governors from the 28 states controlled by the party resolved to support Yar’Adua as their” consensus candidate” for the ticket.
Accreditation of delegates for the convention was still going on Saturday morning, but officials said there was no cause for alarm.
”This is a very important event because whosoever emerges today will definitely be Nigeria’s next president that will consolidate on the achievements of Obasanjo,” convention committee chairperson Toye Olofintuyi said.
”We have to ensure that necessary logistics are put in place for a successful convention. There is no hurry; we are prepared to stay here till Sunday,” he added.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country of 130-million people, has a history of political violence and election malpractices, and tensions are already rising ahead of the 2007 vote. — Sapa-AFP