Gunmen stormed two communities in
Rivers State, killing at least nine people and injuring two others a week ahead
of a gubernatorial election, police said Saturday.
“It was about 19:30 hours (1830 GMT)
of yesterday (Friday). Some unknown armed men invaded Obrikom and Obor
communities and went on a shooting spree,” state police spokesman Ahmad
Muhammad said in a statement.
Muhammad said an initial death toll
of six had risen to nine.
The assailants also set ablaze the
house of a local politician, Vincent Ogbagu, who is a state parliament
candidate in the April 11 election, he said.
Police were looking for the
assailants, Muhammad said.
Elections for state governor and
parliament are scheduled to take place on April 11 in about 30 Nigerian states,
including Rivers and Lagos.
Obrikom and Obor are neighbouring
communities in Rivers, one of Nigeria’s most restive states.
The oil-producing state has been
controlled by president-elect Muhammadu Buhari’s opposition All Progressives
Congress since state Governor Rotimi Amaechi defected from the ruling Peoples
Democratic Party last in 2013.
A curfew imposed in the state to
contain unrest after the opposition disputed results from last weekend’s
general elections was lifted on Thursday.
Outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan
— who lost nationally to Buhari — was declared the winner in Rivers with nearly
95 percent of the vote.
The government imposed the curfew
after thousands of opposition supporters descended on the electoral office in
the state capital Port Harcourt on Sunday and Monday to demand a rerun of
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http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/police-confirm-nine-killed-in-rivers/#sthash.DZcAVPMJ.dpuf
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