Nigeria's electoral commission says
some of its staff were killed, injured and kidnapped during an election re-run
on Saturday in Rivers state.
An Independent National Electoral Commission
(Inec) spokesman blamed the violence on "armed thugs... allegedly acting
on behalf of some politicians".
In a statement
lamenting the "deviant behaviour" of those involved in disrupting the
polls, Inec spokesman Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi described "fatalities,
kidnappings, and ballot snatching", among other offences, which forced
the vote's suspension.
Voting was suspended in most areas
of the oil-rich state, which has suffered from political unrest in the past.
A re-run was ordered after legal
disputes over elections in 2015.
Voters were choosing seats for the state and national assemblies, but not the governor as the Supreme Court ruled his election last March should stand.
Several other deaths were reported in the polls, which have now been indefinitely suspended.
Despite River state's huge resource wealth, it remains poor and underdeveloped for the majority of the communities who live there.
There is huge environmental pollution in some parts of the state due to oil spills.
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