Violence over local polls leaves at least 10 dead

At least 10 people have been killed in Warri, in the oil-rich Niger Delta, when violence erupted over long delayed elections that took place across the country on Saturday. Clashes on Friday between loyalists of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and opposition supporters on left 10 people dead, said IRIN’s correspondent, who was monitoring the local-authority elections from Warri. Many more deaths were reported in the central Plateau State, though it was not clear whether these were directly linked to the elections, or a result of the ongoing inter-ethnic violence that has hit the region in recent months. In the northern Muslim town of Kano, supporters of the PDP threw rocks at the car of the state governor, Ibrahim Shekerau, who represents the All Nigerian People’s Party that is dominant in the north. A sceptical electorate largely stayed away from the polling booths. Allegations of rigging and fraud have left people doubtful that their vote will be respected, IRIN’s correspondent in Warri reported. At one voting booth in the oil town of Warri, less than 100 of the 500 registered votes bothered to turn up to cast their ballot today, IRIN was told. Some voting stations in the districts of Warri North, Warri South and Warri Southwest did not open at all. Here, the risk of violence involving the Ijaw, Urhobo and Itsekiri ethnic groups was considered too great to open the polling booths. More than 200 people have been killed in that area in the last year alone. President Olusegun Obasanjo had deployed the national army to bolster police forces in anticipation of clashes, late on Thursday night. Polling in the local elections should have taken place in April 2002. However, that date was delayed as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had not updated the electoral register. The INEC blamed the government for the delay, saying that the commission had not received the necessary funds in time.