Leading opposition politician is gunned down ahead of Nigerian elections

One of Nigeria's most senior opposition politicians has been murdered only weeks before general elections.

Marshall Harry, a leading figure in the main opposition camp, the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP), was shot dead by gunmen who broke into his home in the capital, Abuja, early yesterday.

The murder has sent shock waves through the country and will add to fears of growing political violence in the fragile democracy. Hundreds of angry demonstrators spilled into the streets of Mr Harry's hometown, Port Harcourt, as news of the killing spread. Next month's elections were already expected to be a flashpoint for religious and ethnic tensions in Africa's most populous country.

Observers said the killing appeared to be a political assassination. Mr Harry, from the south-eastern, oil-rich Rivers state, was a founder of President Olusegun Obasanjo's ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), but last year defected to the opposition, joining the former military ruler and ANPP presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Obasanjo condemned the murder yesterday but the ANPP said the killing was politically motivated. "He was shot dead this morning, obviously by our opponents, although it's too early to say who exactly," Mr Buhari's spokesman said.

Witnesses said a group of men who broke into Mr Harry's house, by climbing over a high fence, seemed to know exactly where they were going.

The killing of Mr Harry could not have come at a more critical time, with Mr Buhari preparing to launch his presidential campaign this weekend. Already, local political and activist groups are fearing the worst in what could be the beginning of a new spate of politically driven violence in south-east Nigeria, where the ethnic Ibo majority is campaigning for a fairer distribution of Nigeria's vast oil revenues.

In recent months, Mr Harry had been travelling in armour-plated cars and was involved in a controversial court case involving accusations of attempts on his life. Nigeria's recent history has been marked by a spate of high-level assassinations. In the past 15 months, at least 10 other leading politicians have been murdered, including the justice minister Bola Ige, who was linked to a southern Yoruba cultural association.

Since Mr Obasanjo came to power in 1999, more than 10,000 Nigerians have died in ethnic, religious and political violence.