Nigeria hit by election riots

Rioting erupted in Nigeria’s Muslim north today as official election results likely to keep a Christian leader in charge were being prepared for release.

President Goodluck Jonathan holds a nearly insurmountable lead in results so far announced. However, the Muslim north largely voted for former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari.

In Kaduna, home to the oil-rich nation’s vice president, angry men burned tyres in the streets and threw stones at police and soldiers trying to restore order.

“Right now, I’m holed up in my room. There’s gunshots everywhere,” said Shehu Sani, a civil rights leader. “They are firing and killing people on the street.”

In Kano, the north’s largest city, smoke could be seen overhead as the head of the local Islamic police force said there were reports of fighting.

Hundreds of youths took to the streets shouting “Only Buhari” in the local Hausa language. Others were burning piles of tyres.

Kaduna is located in Nigeria’s middle belt where Christians and Muslims live together uneasily, and a bomb went off at a hotel after Saturday’s election wounding eight people.

Mr Jonathan, who became president after his Muslim predecessor died in office last year, has long been considered the front-runner. His ruling People’s Democratic Party has dominated politics in the West African giant since it became a democracy 12 years ago.

However, the country’s Muslim north remains hesitant about him as the Christian from the south who took over after the death of the country’s elected Muslim leader.

Many of the north’s elite wanted the ruling party to honour an unwritten power-sharing agreement calling for a Muslim candidate to run in this election, yet Jonathan prevailed in the party’s primary.