Reports of attacks and gunfire in some areas as voters go to polls to elect president

Nigeria’s long-awaited presidential election went ahead on Saturday, marred by heavy gunfire in the north-east, killings in the south and reports of technology failures and vote buying across the country.

Some voters arrived at polling stations at 3am to ensure their ballot was counted in an election dominated by the current president, Muhammadu Buhari, and a former vice-president Atiku Abubakar.

“I will congratulate myself. I’m going to be the winner,” Buhari said after casting his vote in his northern hometown of Daura, responding to a question about whether he would congratulate his opponent if he lost.

The country’s electoral commission INEC had postponed the vote by a week just five hours before polls were due to open last weekend, raising questions about why it had not anticipated the logistical challenges it cited earlier. It was with relief, and lingering suspicion of INEC, that many voters took their places in queues across Africa’s most populous nation.

Four people were shot dead in southern Rivers state, according to the Nigerian press. Hundreds of people fled Geidam in north-eastern Yobe state after a reported attack by Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). Yobe is one of three states destabilised over the past decade by the extremist group Boko Haram and and ISWAP, a splinter group.

People in Maiduguri, the capital of north-eastern Borno state, woke to the sound of heavy gunfire. The authorities said it was “not targeted at members of the public but was for security purpose” and called on voters to turn out en masse.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest People gather to vote in Maiduguri. Photograph: Audu Ali Marte/AFP/Getty Images

“There’s no attack on any part of Maiduguri and hence no threat to public peace and order,” a police spokesman said. Some Maiduguri residents questioned why the security forces would choose to hold an unannounced, fear-inducing drill only a few hours before polls opened.

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Thousands of people who have fled Boko Haram over the past few years and who are living in camps in Maiduguri turned out to vote despite the gunfire. “We need maximum security in the camp to enable us to cast our votes peacefully,” said Ibrahim Jalomi, an internally displaced person from Baga town. He appealed to the armed forces to provide extra protection against Boko Haram attacks.

“The explosions caused panic among us displaced people but it is not enough to dampen our enthusiasm to vote,” said Ya’mallam Garba.

Ibrahim Usman, who also voted in Maiduguri, said his elation at being able to take part in the election was almost destroyed by the failure of the smart card readers at his polling station in Abbaganaram primary school. The readers, and the permanent voter cards they are used with, were introduced in 2015 to accredit voters.

“It delays the process, and can you believe that it took the wisdom of the party agents to agree to the use of manual ways?” Usman said. His frustrations were echoed by Aisha Sani, a housewife at the nearby Mafoni polling station, who said: “I thought that INEC used the extra one week to put everything in order. Why the excuse with sensitive equipment? Is it deliberate?”

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Buhari won the last election with a promise to deal with mushrooming insecurity and official corruption, but he has not made as much progress as his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), claims on these fronts. Many hope his chief rival Atiku, as the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)’s candidate is known, will at least shore up a struggling economy and create jobs. The result is expected to be close.

In Nigeria’s southern megacity of Lagos, young people woke early and braved drizzle to vote for their candidates, including those outside the establishment.

“They [Atiku and Buhari] are both terrible people and not fit to be president,” said Oluchi Nzeadibe, 29, an advertising executive who got to her polling station at Ebute Metta just before 8am to avoid the long queues and vote for the former deputy central bank governor Kingsley Moghalu.

“I don’t think Atiku will bring any real change if he wins. And all the ‘experience and leadership’ they’ve sold us at all levels, what has it brought us really? This old bunch needs to go. Let’s have a Justin Trudeau for once, a younger person. I’m voting Moghalu because he’s different and hasn’t been in power before.”

Voters reported APC and PDP agents had sought out voters at polling stations and offered financial inducements.

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Fatoye Oluwaseyi, a lawyer had to dismiss agents from both parties who approached him with 5,000 naira (£10). He told them he had made the decision to vote out Buhari’s administration a year ago.

He said he was voting against the ruling party because it was inept and had shown “brazen disregard for the rule of law”.