Fear of more violence in Nigeria elections week

Tension in Nigeria is rising in the days before weekend presidential and governorship elections – with fears of more violence heightened after the main opposition party rejected the outcome of parliamentary polls held last Saturday.

Muhammadu Buhari, the retired northern army general who seized power in 1983 in a military coup, said President Olusegun Obasanjo's ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had massively rigged Saturday's elections.

Yesterday, he rejected the outcome of the more recent polls in which his All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) trailed the PDP heavily and called for new elections. "Those who refuse to learn from history will sooner or later become history themselves," he said.