Nigerian Elections off to a Fiery Start
It seems that what I heard from Nigerian friends about the elections being fairly quiet has not been borne out by the facts.
The state gubernatorial elections here have already started with violence and killing in Port Harcourt. In the early hours of this morning there was a lot of shooting at Elelenwo as the police station there was attacked and razed by militants. They then moved on to the Mini Okoro divisional police baracks, not too far from the Shell RA, attacked the station and razed it. It's believed that a lot of prisoners were released, 7 policemen killed and 3 female police officers taken hostage. In a militant attack on JTF personnel 3 were wounded and their weapons stolen. There are also reports in the local press of 3 politicians being killed in Bayelsa State today.
Several hours after voting was due to start, there are reports of a complete absence of ballot forms in most polling stations in Port Harcourt and bands of armed thugs already on the streets ready to coerce voters or frighten them into not going to the polls.
Best advice is to stay off the streets all day today and think twice about making any journey tomorrow unless you really need to and have a strong escort for protection.