Violence disrupts gubernatorial primaries

The officer was killed in Benue state by a mob that was protesting results from last week’s state legislature elections, police spokesman Samuel Jinadu said.

In the oil-rich south, Delta state primaries were also halted after a small group of politicians held a mock primary election Friday to protest their exclusion from running in Saturday’s race.

Jinadu said both primaries would be held on Tuesday.

Saturday’s primaries set the stage for national elections in April, being held at the same time as a presidential vote.

Competition is fierce for government posts in Nigeria, and endorsement by the governing party is seen as a huge boost for any candidate in April’s elections.

Campaigning has often been marred by violence in the West African country � where militants regularly take foreign oil workers hostage and crime and corruption are high.

Other states also reported violence connected to Saturday’s primaries.

On Friday, a bomb exploded at a voting venue in southern Bayelsa state, though police commissioner Hafiz Ringim said it had not prevented peaceful primaries.

Elsewhere in the south, a group of Rivers state candidates tried to halt the primaries after a favored candidate withdrew at the last minute and gave his support to another. The remaining seven candidates walked out of the stadium where elections were being held.

“The whole exercise is a sham and a fraud,” said Alabo Paworiso Horsfall, a former state commissioner and one of those standing for nomination.

The governing People’s Democratic Party currently controls both the House and the Senate, as well as more than two-thirds of the state governorships.

Nigeria receives tens of billions of dollars (euros) in oil revenues every year, but is tied as the sixth most corrupt country in the world, according to Berlin-based watchdog Transparency International. Poverty is widespread and political thuggery common. Hundreds of people are competing for the lucrative state governorships, and the immunity from prosecution that goes with the post.

The presidential ballot will mark the first time an elected Nigerian government has handed power to another since the country gained independence from Britain in 1960.

Nigeria’s last elections, in 2003, were marred by widespread allegations of violence and rigging by international observers.

The president and the majority of the state governors have served the constitutional limit of two terms.