GANG ATTACKS ELECTORAL COUNTING CENTRE IN LAGOS, NIGERIA

Soldiers were forced to intervene on Sunday after 15 men pretending to be electoral officials stormed a voting collation centre in the Alimosho neighbourhood of Lagos, attacking party agents with knives and sticks, video obtained by Reuters TV showed.

“Hoodlum boys … just came and started coming out with daggers and hitting everybody that are Labour Party agents,” the party’s ward secretary Jacob Sulemain said after soldiers repelled the attack.

The presidential vote is expected to be the closest in Nigeria’s history, with candidates from two parties that have alternated power since the end of army rule in 1999 facing an unusually strong challenge from a minor party nominee popular among young voters.