SDP wins in Nigeria

LAGOS (Reuter) - Social Democrats won control of Nigeria's new civilian House of Representatives and the military President, Ibrahim Babangida, yesterday told the army to support them. With 95 per cent of seats declared for the 593-member lower chamber, official figures gave the Social Democratic Party (SDP) 305 seats. Figures from Saturday's polls showed the SDP was two seats short of a majority of 46 in the 91-member Senate, the upper chamber.

The right-of-centre National Republican Convention (NRC), the SDP's sole rival for full civilian power after the army's planned handover on 2 January, took 260 seats in the House and 32 in the Senate. The result is likely to boost the SDP's candidate in a 5 December poll for a civilian president.