Nigeria's Buhari promises security for rescheduled election

President Muhammadu Buhari vowed Friday that Nigerians would be able to vote in security on the eve of the country's weekend elections, despite a week-long postponement and violence in the north.
In a televised address, Buhari insisted that "adequate security measures" were in place for the vote which would be able to take place in an atmosphere "devoid of fear from threat or intimidation".
Tempers have been running high since the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced a one-week delay just hours before voting was due to begin on February 16.

That move triggered a war of words between the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), with each accusing the other of conspiring with INEC to rig the result.
Buhari himself has also been accused of failing to calm nerves, by ordering the police and security services to be "ruthless" in their pursuit of vote-riggers and ballot box snatchers.
Atiku Abubakar, his main challenger, hit back saying such comments recalled "the era of dictatorship and military rule" in a pointed reminder of Buhari's past as head of a military government.
Nigeria's federal police chief Mohammed Adamu said Friday that security personnel at polling units would be unarmed, although they would have support from armed tactical units.

And anyone engaging in wrongdoing, whether vote-buying, ballot box snatching or thuggery, "will be arrested and prosecuted", he told a news conference,
The election campaign has coincided with fresh violence in the north, blamed on both criminal gangs and Boko Haram jihadists.
More than 200 people have died since the start of this month alone.
On Tuesday, two people were killed and several others injured in clashes between rival political parties in the northern state of Kano.

Suspicions
All eyes will be on the nearly 120,000 polling stations when they open at 0700 GMT to see if INEC has overcome logistical difficulties to deliver the correct ballot boxes, papers and results sheets on time.
IT specialists have worked round-the-clock to reconfigure some 180,000 machines that are needed to check biometric identity cards, and allow people to vote.
Nearly 72.8 million people of the 84 million who registered, have collected their biometric identity cards which will enable them to vote, INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu said on Friday.

The uncollected cards, however, will likely add to fears about a lower turn-out and do little to alleviate persistent fears of fraud.
Ahead of last week's delayed vote, many Nigerians had travelled from commercial centres such as Lagos to their home towns and villages to cast their ballots.
But this time, fewer people are likely to do so, partly due to the cost -- and partly due to the hassle.
During the last elections in 2015, 67.4 million people registered to vote.

That election was won by Buhari, who took 15.4 million of the 28.5 million valid votes cast.
This time around, repeated delays in the distribution and collection of identity cards have fuelled suspicions of skullduggery and conspiracy between the parties and INEC.
Both the APC and the PDP have been accused of trying to buy the cards, with a view to rigging the result.
Thousands of cards and card readers have been destroyed in suspicious fires at three INEC offices in central and southeast Nigeria.
And INEC's Yakubu has insisted there is "no evidence that the commission has been sabotaged".
Results are due out early next week.

Security fears
At 76 and 72, Buhari and Abubakar are the oldest of 73 presidential candidates and are standing in what could be the last elections of their long political careers.
Both have been fixtures on Nigeria's political landscape for decades, through the turbulent years of military government to the return to civilian rule in 1999.
Just over half of all registered voters are aged 18-35, reflecting the country's increasingly young population.
Buhari has again positioned himself as the candidate to tackle multiple security challenges, including Boko Haram, and endemic corruption.
He also wants another four years to complete much-needed road and rail infrastructure projects and expand social mobility schemes, including micro-finance for the poorest.

Abubakar, meanwhile, is seen as a pro-business free marketeer, whose main pledges have been to privatise state-run companies and float the embattled naira currency.
The past has come back to haunt both candidates, with Abubakar dogged by his alleged links to corruption cases in the United States and Buhari facing claims of creeping authoritarianism.
Earlier this month, Buhari suspended Nigeria's chief justice after he was charged with failing to declare assets.
But with the Supreme Court he presides over likely to rule on any election dispute, many suspected a political motive.