By Olarewaju Kola
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria
At least 25 people were killed and five injured in an attack by suspected Boko Haram militants in Nigerian volatile northeast Borno State on Saturday.
"I received a report that 25 people have been killed in Buratai today when Boko Haram attacked the place," Borno Governor Alhaji Kashim Shettima told reporters after voting in the elections elections.
"My commissioner of education attended the burial of the deceased on behalf of the government," he confirmed.
Boko Haram insurgents, riding motorcycles and two 4-wheel vehicles, invaded Buratai, a town some 200kms from Maiduguri, Borno's provincial capital.
The education commissioner, a prominent member of the state cabinet, hails from the town.
He said five injured people are receiving treatment in a nearby hospital.
He described the attackers as callous and coward, saying insurgency will end soon in the area.
A military source told AA the insurgents came at about 4am on Saturday and put fire on houses to smoke out residents before opening fire on fleeing residents.
Buratai, a serene community south of Borno, has experienced less attack by Boko Haram in its six-year insurgency.
Residents said they were looking forward to participating in the voting when the insurgents bombarded their community.
Boko Haram had threatened to disrupt the general election in a video by its leader Abubakar Shekau.
Nigerians are elected a new president and parliament.
Voting is taking place at 119, 973 polling centers across the country and will end after the last accredited voter had cast his/her ballot.
Nigeria has a total of 68,833,476 registered voters, down from 73.5 million four years ago. The reduction has been attributed to the recent elimination of double registration.
Only 56,431,255 eligible voters (some 82 percent of the total) have obtained PVCs, without which voters cannot cast ballots.
Fourteen parties are fielding candidates in the presidential poll, all of whom – with one exception – are male.
The race is largely between Jonathan of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), which has ruled the country since 1999, and Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler who is running on the ticket of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), an amalgam of political interests.
Nigeria is fighting a six-year Boko Haram insurgency that has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced over one million people from the northeastern region, where the militants have been the most ruthless.
The Nigerian army confirmed on Friday liberating Gwoza, a town that the militant group had used as the headquarters of its self-styled "Islamic caliphate" in northeastern Nigeria.
