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Key Nigeria opposition leader dead
ABUJA, Nigeria (Reuters) -- A senior Nigerian opposition politician was shot dead on Wednesday in what could be the most serious political killing in the runup to the country's elections in April, police and party officials said. They said Harry Marshall, a leading member of the All Nigeria Peoples Party and a weighty opponent of President Olusegun Obasanjo, was killed in the capital Abuja. "It is true he was killed in the early hours of this morning," Ibrahim Modibo, the ANPP's spokesman, told Reuters. A police spokesman confirmed the killing, which appeared to be the latest in a growing list of political assassinations adding to apprehension ahead of Nigeria's critical polls. A police spokesman said national police chief Tafa Balogun had ordered an immediate investigation. Shocked ANPP leaders gathered in emergency in Abuja to discuss the loss of their stalwart politician. The ANPP is Nigeria's second biggest party and most serious opponent of Obasanjo's ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Marshall, from Rivers state in the oil-producing Niger Delta, was a founding member of the PDP. But he quit the ruling party amid acrimony last year and was working to deny Obasanjo and the PDP victory in Rivers in the coming polls. Nigeria holds a series of national and regional elections in April. The most important is a presidential poll on April 19 in which Obasanjo is seeking re-election. ANPP presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler who is seen as Obasanjo's most formidable opponent, is due to kick off his campaign in Rivers on Saturday. The polls, the first since 15 years of military rule ended in 1999, have been overshadowed by the worst cycle of violence in Africa's most populous country for over 30 years. More than 10,000 people have died in religious, ethnic and political violence since Obasanjo came to power in 1999. Political assassinations, inter-party and intra-party clashes in recent months have added to fears of wider mayhem around the elections, the first to be supervised by civilian authoritis for over 20 years. Nigeria has not successfully transferred power from one elected government to another since independence from Britain in 1960. Such attempts plunged the country into violence in the 1960s and in 1983 and led directly to military coups. Copyright 2003 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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