Nigeria’s Muslim north erupts as Christian incumbent takes commanding lead in presidential election

Opposition supporters in Nigeria’s Muslim north set fire to homes bearing ruling party banners and heavy gunfire rang out in several towns as officials released presidential election results on Monday showing the Christian incumbent Goodluck Jonathan has an insurmountable lead.

Results were pending in four states from Saturday’s election but tallies released live on national television indicated Jonathan has a commanding lead of more than 11m votes with about 6m left to be announced. The Muslim north had largely voted for former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari.

Witnesses said youths in the northern city of Kano were setting fire to homes displaying the banners of Jonathan’s People’s Democratic party. Associated Press saw hundreds of youths carrying wooden planks in the street, shouting “Only Buhari” in the Hausa language.

In Kaduna, home to the vice president Namadi Sambo, young men burned tyres in the streets and threw stones at police and soldiers trying to restore order, according to witnesses.

Shehu Sani, a civil rights leader, said: “I’m holed up in my room. There’s gunshots everywhere. They are firing and killing people on the street.”

Kaduna state police spokesman Aminu Lawal described the fighting as an uprising.

Federal emergency management agency spokesman Yushua Shuaib declined to release casualty figures, fearing they would further stoke sectarian violence. “Such a thing can encourage a reprisal attack,” he said.

Election officials said they would finish releasing election results throughout Monday regardless of the violence.

Over the weekend, opposition supporters rioted in the north-east state of Gombe. Protesters burned down the house of the local chairman of the ruling party, two hotels and at least two buses. The rioters accused the state government of rigging the results to ensure Jonathan got at least 25% of the vote.

Police chief Suleiman Lawal said on Sunday there had been a “complete breakdown of law and order”.

Nigeria’s elections have long been marred by violence and rigging. On Saturday, a police officer was shot dead at a Maiduguri polling station and a hotel blast in Kaduna wounded eight people.

Nigeria, an oil rich nation of 150 million people, is divided between the Christian-dominated south and the Muslim north. A dozen states across Nigeria’s north have Sharia law in place, although they have secular state governments.

Thousands have been killed in sectarian in the last decade, but conflict is often rooted in struggles for political and economic dominance. Muslims in the north regard Jonathan as the Christian from the south who took over after the death of the country’s elected Muslim leader.

The People’s Democratic party has dominated Nigerian politics since it became a democracy 12 years ago. Many of the north’s elite wanted the ruling party to honour an unwritten power-sharing agreement calling for a Muslim candidate to run for president, yet Jonathan prevailed in the party’s primary election.

Source: guardian

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