By Rafiu Ajakaye
LAGOS
The militant organization Boko Haram on Saturday distributed fliers in Nigeria's northeastern Gombe State, threatening to attack polling stations during the next general elections.
"Don't go to polling centers on election day, If you want to live long," Boko Haram wrote in the fliers.
"We will attack all polling centers," it threatened.
The fliers were written in the local Hausa language and had the Boko Haram insignia on them.
They were distributed on Saturday as Boko Haram attacked the local government area of Dadinkowa and the capital town of Gombe state, Ayuba Ndako, a resident of Gombe, said.
He added that locals locked themselves inside their homes for fear of the attackers.
In its three-paragraph fliers, Boko Haram asked local residents not to join security forces in fighting it.
"If you want peace to reign, don't join security in fighting us, because we don't attack people unless they attack us," it said.
It even called on these local residents to join it in what it called its "Jihad" (or holy war) and the practice of Islam.
Sources, meanwhile, said that the Nigerian army had succeeded in repelling the Boko Haram attack on the two towns.
They expected casualties on both sides.
Nigeria is expected to hold its general elections on March 28 and April 11.
The new fliers, some observers say, were an attempt by the militant group to scare people away from the elections.
A military source told The Anadolu Agency that Nigerian troops had stormed into Monguno, a town of the northeastern Borno state, to liberate it from Boko Haram militants who captured it in January.
"We are close to liberating Monguno because there was an air raid on the town on Saturday morning, while ground troops are ready to flush the terrorists out of it," the source said on condition of anonymity.
Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan said in previous statements to the media that the Nigerian army would liberate much of the towns under Boko Haram before the elections.
