Goodluck Faces Court For electoral fraud

Nigeria’s election may be over with incumbent President, Goodluck Jonathan, winning the presidency, with a huge margin of votes, but it appears he would have to untie himself from allegations of fraud brought up against him by his closest competitor, General Muhammadu Buhari.
The ex-military officer and CPC candidate, who managed to pull just 27 per cent of the votes, has accused Mr. Jonathan and other senior officers of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) of conniving to massage the process.
“There were widespread irregularities during and before the election on Saturday. In some areas in the south, for instance, majority of my supporters were not allowed to vote,” disappointed General Buhari is reported to have told journalists, shortly after the declaration of the results.
He insisted that it is only a “legal declaration” on the result that can authenticate the true reflection of last Saturday’s polls, which saw him coming second to the incumbent president.
However, former Ghana’s President, John Agyekum Kufuor, who led the African Union (AU) observer team to Nigeria, has certified that the election was generally peaceful and credible.
But, in the meantime, the CPC leadership has urged calm after riots broke out in the north when Goodluck Jonathan, a southerner, was declared president elect by INEC.
“I urge people to calm down and be law-abiding as we are pursuing these irregularities with [the electoral commission] with a view to ensure justice for them,” he said.
So far, the Red Cross says at least 35,000 people have now been displaced across six states.
In Kaduna state, unconfirmed reports said some 400 people have been arrested in connection with the clashes.
Kaduna city, streets have been left littered with burnt corpses and rioters burned churches, police stations and homes burnt after two days of disturbances.
There are clashes in other parts of the state and more security forces have been deployed to those areas, reports said.
Umar Marigar, the Red Cross’s national disaster co-ordinator, is quoted by the BBC on Wednesday that the number of displaced in the north had more than doubled in the last day.
He said the group did not release figures on the number of casualties for fear of sparking reprisal attacks.
Red Cross volunteers were on alert in areas of the south of the country after reports that northerners were fleeing to police barracks for protection, he said.