Yenagoa: A woman was shot dead on Saturday in violence as voters went to the polls under tight security to elect a new governor in Nigeria's southern state of Bayelsa, officials said.
Bayelsa is the home state of former president Goodluck Jonathan, where incumbent governor Seriake Dickson is running against former governor Timipre Sylva for another four-year term in office.
The governor's spokesman Daniel Iwariso-Markson told AFP that a woman had been killed in Oporoma, a town at least 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of Port Harcourt, Nigeria's oil hub, in one of a series of shooting attacks.
"She was hit by bullets fired during the shooting," he said, without giving details.
Unofficial sources put the death toll at four.
Governor Dickson said the attacks targeted his supporters.
"There was a premeditated attack on my supporters in Brass, Ekeremor and Southern Ijaw (municipalities) which left one dead," he told reporters in his hometown, Sagbama.
The state electoral chief, Baritor Kpagir, told journalists that some of his electoral officers were briefly held by some thugs before soldiers rescued them in Oporoma.
Some 14,000 police officers were deployed for the election, but the police made no comment on the violence.
Dickson said voter card readers had malfunctioned in several parts of the state, which is home to 1.7 million people.
Jonathan on Saturday also complained about the card readers.
Dickson, a 49-year-old lawyer representing Jonathan's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is seeking another four-year term in office, while Sylva, 51, is hoping for a comeback in what would be a major victory for President Muhammadu Buhari's All Progressives Congress (APC) in a traditional PDP heartland.
The campaign has seen the candidates trade accusations of violence by rival supporters.
In March, thugs believed to be sympathetic to Dickson invaded a court in the state capital Yenagoa, injuring workers as the court was about to deliver a crucial ruling.
AFP
