Several die in Nigerian election violence

SEVERAL people died in election violence in Nigeria’s oil-rich delta as President Olusegun Obasanjo’s party stretched its lead in results of parliamentary polls.

There were at least five killings at the weekend in the Niger Delta, amid reports of the navy and army clashing with ethnic militants. It augured badly for the April 19 presidential election in Africa's most populous state.

Nationwide at least 10 people died in election violence but foreign observers said they were relieved the toll was not worse.

Results from Saturday's parliamentary elections emerged at a snail's pace from the heavily criticised Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

"I think many people in the states got tired last night and went home," said one bleary-eyed election official at INEC's headquarters in the capital Abuja, where the lights frequently went off because of power outages.

By yesterday the INEC had declared only 124 of the 360 House of Representatives seats, with Obasanjo's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winning 69 of them. A tally of 163 House seats obtained from state INEC officials and local correspondents showed the PDP winning 91, with a comparable lead in the Senate.

The results reflected Nigeria's strong ethnic cleavages, with Obasanjo faring well in his south-western Yoruba heartland, rubbing out the threat of the rival Alliance for Democracy (AD) except in Lagos, the chaotic commercial capital.

The main opposition party, the All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP), was well ahead in its northern, mainly Muslim power base. Obasanjo's main challenger for the presidency will be the ANPP's Muhamadu Buhari both men are former military presidents who took power in coups d'êtat.

But the focus was increasingly on the troubled southern Delta, the network of swamps and creeks bordering the Atlantic where most of Nigeria's oil wealth is produced. Anger is intense there about the division of oil revenues and environmental damage blamed on the industry.

Ethnic militants said they battled with troops and the navy and voting was disrupted on Sunday after being postponed on Saturday in some areas.

Ethnic Ijaw representatives said at least three Ijaw militants were killed in clashes with the army. A leader of the rival Itsekiri group said two Itsekiri were killed by Ijaw earlier on Sunday.

An estimated 10,000 people have been killed in outbreaks of ethnic, religious and political violence in Nigeria since 1999 when Obasanjo's election ended 15 years of military rule in the country of 120 million.