Nigeria deports 87 over vote-rigging concerns

Nigeria has deported 87 Niger nationals amid concerns they may have been involved in an attempt to rig this month’s parliamentary elections. The news came after Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said the postponement of the polls demonstrated that the country was serious about holding “free and fair elections”.

Reuters

A senior immigration official said on Wednesday that the 87 deportees had been in possession of voter registration cards but that they would not say how they got them.

"All the 87 deportees crossed into Nigeria without valid papers and the arrest of some of them at polling stations last week created fears they could be used in electoral malpractice," Haruna Sa'idu Dawop, the head of immigration in Bauchi state, told French press agency Afp.

Niger is located across Nigeria’s northern border and it has been alleged in the past that Nigerian politicians have recruited people, including Niger nationals, to help rig elections.

Parliamentary elections were due to be held last weekend but they have since been postponed twice as a result of organisational problems. They will now be held this Saturday, with presidential and state polls having been pushed back to 16 and 26 April respectively.

Goodluck Jonathan, whose polling station in his home state of Bayelsa was among those that did not function, said on Tuesday that the postponement had been unavoidable.

"It is a sacrifice all of us are paying because I was also in the field that day," he said.

"Votes must count and it must begin with the parliamentary election because if we have a bad parliament, we cannot have a good government."