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30 feared dead in poll battles
06/04/2004 08:39  - (SA)  

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  • Yola - Thirty people were feared dead after days of ongoing clashes over disputed election results in Nigeria.

    Youths wielding clubs and homemade rifles battled soldiers and police in the northeastern part of the country on Monday, witnesses said.

    Egbochukwu Nwachukwu, police commissioner in Taraba state, confirmed only three dead - including one soldier - after days of battles in the town of Donga, about 100km from Nigeria's eastern border with Cameroon.

    But several witnesses fleeing the town on Monday spoke of at least 30 bodies littering roads, after supporters of Nigeria's largest opposition group began rioting on Saturday, to protest results from last month's municipal government elections.

    The polls handed victories in Donga to members of President Olusegun Obasanjo's ruling party.

    Reinforcements

    Numerous homes and businesses have been torched in the fighting. Police and army reinforcements were being sent to the area, Nwachukwu said.

    Tensions had been running high since early March, when a prominent local politician, Uba Maigari, joined the opposition, after ruling-party lawmakers ousted him as a deputy state governor.

    Scores were killed throughout Nigeria during campaigning prior to the nationwide municipal elections on March 27.

    Independent observers cited widespread cases of fraud, perpetrated by officials from the ruling party and opposition blocs.

    More than 10 000 people have been killed in political, ethnic and religious violence since Obasanjo won the 1999 elections that ended 15 years of brutal military rule. He was re-elected in 2003 in elections during which more than 100 people died.

    Amid rising tensions nationwide, Obasanjo's administration, in recent days, has tried to downplay an official investigation into "serious security breaches" that authorities privately described as a plot by opposition-leaning military officers to overthrow the government.

    Edited by Duane Heath


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