At least 20 killed in political violence

At least 20 people died in Nigeria on Wednesday when violence erupted between factions of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), in Jos, Plateau State, witnesses and hospital sources said.

The deaths occurred when the election of ward delegates for the congress of the party in the Nasarawa area degenerated into violence. The chaos spread to several other areas of the state capital as bands of youths armed with clubs, machetes and bottles engaged each other.

Some of the dead bodies and the wounded were taken to the Jos University Teaching Hospital. "I can confirm that we have mass casualties with some fatalities," Daniel Iya, the director of the hospital, told reporters. But he declined to give figures.

Another hospital source told IRIN that they received up to 20 people bodies. "We had at the last count 20 people dead who were brought to the hospital, perhaps there could be more," the source said.

Witnesses said as the violence spread, the rival gangs attacked many innocent people, some of whom were either killed or left seriously hurt.

Police said on Friday at least 40 people had been arrested in connection with the violence but the situation was under control. The army is also reported to be on high alert in Jos to prevent a repeat of the widespread ethnic and religious violence that broke out in the city in September 2001, claiming more than 500 lives.

Recent incidents of political violence in different parts of Nigeria have raised fears that the proposed elections would be violent. Local government elections have been scheduled for 10 August, to be followed by state and national elections in the first quarter of 2003.

President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was elected in 1999 to end more than 15 years of military rule declared his candidature last week. A total of 33 political groupings have already applied to the Independent National Electoral Commission to be registered as parties that will join the three existing parties, PDP, the All People's Party, and the Alliance for Democracy in the electoral contest.