Boko Haram vows to disrupt polls

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau vowed to disrupt Nigeria’s upcoming general elections in a new video released Tuesday, after two suicide attacks in the northeast blamed on the Islamists killed 38 people.

“This election will not be held even if we are dead. Even if we are not alive Allah will never allow you to do it,” Shekau said in the Hausa language, presumably referring to the polls scheduled for March 28.

The video appeared to be the first message released by the group on Twitter, a sign of its changing media tactics after previous messages were distributed to journalists on DVD.

Shekau was shown in unusual clarity in front of a solid blue background, dressed in black and with an automatic weapon resting to his right.

Nigeria’s general election had been scheduled for February 14 but was postponed by six weeks, with the security services saying they needed more time to contain the violence in the northeast, Boko Haram’s stronghold.

Despite Shekau’s threat, experts doubt that the Islamist rebels have the capacity to disrupt voting nationwide, although election officials have conceded that voting could prove impossible in parts of the northeast, especially by March 28, the new election day.

But the latest wave of attacks blamed on the rebels underscored the challenge facing Nigeria and its neighbours — Cameroon, Chad and Niger — despite claims of successes in the joint operation launched this month.