Two Nigerian states hit hard by deadly riots after presidential elections went back to the polls for governor races Thursday amid a security lockdown and with scores still displaced. Soldiers accompanied electoral officials to polls in Kaduna and Bauchi states and the electoral commission scrambled to find some 2,000 workers to replace those who refused to show up because of fears of violence.
Police and military personnel in armoured vehicles patrolled the streets of Kaduna city, the capital of the same state, and set up roadblocks to search cars. Police kept a close eye on Bauchi city, the capital of that state. “If any of you is caught attempting to snatch or steal ballot papers or boxes, we will kill you,” Bauchi state police commissioner Amana John Abakasanga told a group of youths at a polling station in Bauchi after they could not produce voters’ cards.
Vice President Namadi Sambo, who is from Kaduna and had his house torched in last week’s rioting, went to his polling place which was ringed by dozens of security agents, including bomb squad officers and police with dogs. Police armed with rifles cordoned off the roads leading to the area. An outbreak of unrest, which a local rights group says killed more than 500 people after April 16 presidential polls, forced authorities to delay governorship and state assembly elections in Kaduna and Bauchi by two days.
Kaduna and neighbouring Bauchi became the epicentre of the unrest, ignited by the victory of incumbent Goodluck Jonathan in the presidential elections. The violence spiralled and spilled across a dozen other states, displacing an estimated 74,000 people. Many have taken up residence in increasingly squalid displaced camps. Turnout appeared low in many places on Thursday.
“People are still scared because of last week’s mayhem,” said Solomon Patrick, a 41-year-old civil servant at a polling place in the Bauchi state capital, also called Bauchi.
