KANO, Nigeria - Security forces fired in the air and used teargas across Nigeria's largely Muslim north Monday to try to quell protests over the election victory of President Goodluck Jonathan. The vote count showed Jonathan, from the southern oil-producing Niger Delta, had beaten Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler from the north, in the first round. Observers have called the poll the fairest in decades in Africa's most populous nation but Buhari's supporters accuse the ruling party of rigging. Results show how politically polarized the country is, with Buhari sweeping states in the Muslim north and Jonathan winning the largely Christian south. Plumes of smoke rose into the air in parts of the northern city of Kaduna as protesters set fire to barricades of tyres. Groups of youths shouted "We want Buhari, we want Buhari." Residents in the town of Zaria said a church was burned overnight and soldiers dispersed scuffles between rival supporters at the gates of the Emir's palace. "They have destroyed our cars and our houses. I had to run for my life and I am now in my neighbor's house," said Dora Ogbebor a resident of the town of Zaria whose origins are in the south. Soldiers used whips to disperse people gathering in the streets of Kano, the most populous city in the north. Gunfire broke out in one neighbourhood and protesters hurled stones. An armored personnel carrier, armed police and soldiers formed a barricade around the electoral commission office. "We will have the situation under control soon," said Agbo Omaji, a police inspector securing the electoral office. Soldiers fired in the air and helicopters flew overhead in the central city of Jos, where thousands have been killed in sectarian violence over the past decade. Nigeria has a history of rigged and violent elections but Saturday's vote was deemed by many Nigerians, and foreign observers, to have been a vast improvement on the past, with the voting process orderly and little unrest on the day itself.
