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Nigeria's northern Katsina state was torn between anger and elation when Governor Umaru Yar'Adua beat local hero and former army ruler Muhammadu Buhari in presidential polls widely seen as rigged.
KATSINA: Nigeria's northern Katsina state was torn between anger and elation when Governor Umaru Yar'Adua beat local hero and former army ruler Muhammadu Buhari in presidential polls widely seen as rigged.
Yar'Adua and Buhari, a distant second according to official results, both hail from the same impoverished Muslim state. Allegiances were sharply divided in the dusty state capital.
Many residents said they were thrilled the power base of Africa's most populous nation would shift to the agrarian state on the edge of the drought-striken Sahel region.
Cheers and applause greeted the announcement of Yar'Adua's victory in parts of the city.
"I am really grateful to Allah that our candidate has won," said Habibu Isah, 42, a trader in Katsina city's central market.
"We were waiting for this day. We knew this day would come. This is good not just for Katsina but the whole of Nigeria," he said as a group of fellow traders waved their fists in the air and nodded approval.
Yar'Adua's supporters dismissed opposition complaints of violence and intimidation by security forces, ballot-stuffing by backers of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP), and disregard for procedures by the electoral authority.
"The elections were very good," said Sheriff Akinoca, 34, a telephone accessories salesman. "Nothing is ever 100 per cent perfect."
But supporters of Buhari, who comes from the town of Daura some 80km outside Katsina city, said the election had been a sham after official results showed their candidate won 6.6 million votes to Yar'Adua's 24.6 million.
"I am very angry because in so many places the election was not well conducted. . . It's not fair," said Yari Suleiman, 53, a member of Buhari's party.
"We will protest. I will do whatever my party decides."
Buhari has rejected the results and demanded the organisation of fresh polls. He has said he may call his supporters on to the streets in a peaceful protest.
"The outcome of the results is a disgrace to Nigerians. I have never seen such violent and shameful elections," said Babangida Musa, 47, a marketing expert who voted for Buhari.
"I have been really cheated, but you cannot protest in Nigeria, you cannot, you can only pray to God. . . If you come out on the streets they will kill you."
Locals who said they voted for neither man expressed disappointment at the electoral process, which marks the first democratic transition of power in Nigeria from one civilian government to another since independence from Britain in 1960.
"It has not been valid or constitutional," said Gambo Babangida, 27, a civil servant. "Yar'Adua is not the kind of person who will bring change to Nigeria. Here in Katsina he was built some buildings, but nothing has changed beside that."