Boko Haram gunmen kill 6 voters in northeast Nigeria

DAMATURU (Nigeria), March 28

Islamist Boko Haram insurgents launched two deadly attacks on voters in northeast Nigeria on Saturday, police and a security source said, killing six people in an election in which insecurity is a major issue. The attacks came as Nigeria voted to elect a new president in what is being seen as the closest campaign in the country's history.

One attack was in Ngalda, Yobe state, state police commissioner Danladi Marcus told Reuters by telephone. The other was in an ethnic Fulani village called Woru in Gombe state, a security source said.

In both attacks gunmen opened fire on voters as they trekked to their polling stations, killing three in each.

Earlier in the day, two blasts occurred in polling stations in two cities. However, no one casualty was reported, even though bloodstains in one blast site indicated that one person may have been injured in an explosion.

In the first, a bomb exploded in the eastern Nigerian city of Enugu at a polling station in a primary school on Saturday hours before polls opened and before another bomb that stuck a different part of the east, police said.

"No life was lost but there were blood stains on the vehicle that conveyed the bomb showing the occupant may have been injured," Enugu police spokesman Stephen Lar said by telephone.

In the second, an explosion struck a polling station at a primary school in the eastern Nigerian city of Awka on Saturday morning but claimed no casualties, police said.

"No lives were lost and none injured. The police bomb squad has moved in," Uche Eze, police spokesman for Anambra state, of which Awka is the capital, said. Anambra has often been scene of political thuggery around election time.

Meanwhile, polling opened on Saturday to elect a new president despite reports of delay.

"Polling stations have opened. Accreditation has started," Independent National Electoral Commission spokesman Kayode Idowu said early on Saturday.

President Goodluck Jonathan is seeking a second four-year term as leader of Africa's most populous nation against a strong challenge from the main opposition candidate Muhammadu Buhari.

The vote has been seen as a referendum on Jonathan's record over the past four years, with an escalation in the Boko Haram insurgency and the continent's top economy hit by the global shock in oil prices.

Buhari, a former military ruler who has a reputation for fighting corruption, also charges that Jonathan has done little to tackle rampant graft in government, particularly in the oil and gas sector.

The election was postponed from February 14 because of military operations against Boko Haram in the northeast, which has since seen a series of claimed successes against the militants.

Many people had formed queues outside polling stations since the early hours or even slept overnight.

Streets were deserted of vehicles as stringent security measures were put in place countrywide with fears of Boko Haram violence and poll-related unrest.

The Muslim-majority north is generally seen as a stronghold of Buhari and his All Progressives Congress (APC) opposition.

Jonathan and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are viewed as having larger support in the mainly Christian south.

In the president's home town of Utuoke, Bayelsa state, Laurence Banigo, a 42-year-old civil engineer, said: "This is a great day for our son, and we are set to return him to power. He has done well. He deserves a second term."  

In Buhari's hometown of Daura, in the northern state of Katsina, voter Moustapha Osman highlighted the problem of security that has blighted Jonathan's presidency.

"We are ready 100 per cent to vote, to vote the candidate that will protect our lives and integrity of this country," he said. — AFP