Millions of Nigerians turn out to vote in presidential poll

Abuja, March 28

Nigerians turned out in their millions today to vote in a presidential election that analysts say is too close to call between President Goodluck Jonathan and former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari.

Two car bombs exploded at two polling stations in south-central Enugu state but did not hurt voters, police said. Police detonated two other car bombs at a primary school in Enugu, said Enugu state police Commissioner Dan Bature.

Boko Haram extremists waving guns forced voters to abandon polling stations in three villages of northeast Gombe state, witnesses said.

The official website of the Independent National Electoral Commission was hacked but was quickly secured, said officials who said the site holds no sensitive material.

“Struck by Nigerian Cyber Army!” was the message left at www.inecnigeria.com.

Voters in the oil-rich south who traditionally support President Goodluck Jonathan could determine the outcome of the first election in Nigeria’s history where an opposition candidate has a realistic chance of defeating a sitting president.

Nigeria’s northeast is the center of the Islamic uprising of Boko Haram who have vowed to disrupt elections, calling democracy a corrupt Western concept.

Thousands of people forced from the homes by the insurgency lined up to vote at a refugee camp in Yola, the northeast Adamawa state capital which is hosting as many refugees as its 300,000 residents.

Polling stations opened late in many areas as officials rushed across the country delivering ballot materials by trucks, speedboats, motorcycles, mules and even camels, in the case of a northern mountaintop village, according to spokesman Kayode Idowu of the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Good humor turned to anger and altercations as people waited hours to be registered to vote, only to find that machines were not reading new biometric voting cards.

Three newly imported card readers failed to recognise the fingerprints of Jonathan and his wife. He returned two hours later and was accredited without the machine using visual identification. Biometric cards and readers are being used for the first time to discourage the kind of fraud that has marred previous votes.

Afterward, Jonathan wiped sweat from his brow and urged people to be patient as he had, telling Channels TV: “I appeal to all Nigerians to be patient no matter the pains it takes as long as if, as a nation, we can conduct free and fair elections that the whole world will accept.”

Social media was abuzz with the problem. One tweeter said they solved their issue by having an official remove the protective plastic film from the screen supposed to read a fingerprint on the card reader. — AP