Nigerian politicians abducted in vote fraud row

LAGOS, Sep 11 (Reuters) An armed group is holding nine local politicians hostage in southwestern Nigeria, demanding payment for helping the ruling party rig elections in April, a spokesman for the group said today.

The leaders of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo state, including a local government chairman, were abducted on Saturday at Igbekebo town where they were due to pick delegates for upcoming municipal election primaries.

A spokesman for the kidnappers, who declined to be named for security reasons, said they had demanded a ransom of 500 million naira to pay members who helped secure a landslide for the PDP in the April elections.

''The government reached a political agreement with us during the elections. We fulfilled our side of the deal, but they have reneged on their part of the agreement,'' he told Reuters by telephone from a hideout in Ondo state.

''Some of the boys we used for the elections are stranded in our camps. We are asking the government to give us 500 million naira to demobilise them,'' he added.

Originally 11 politicians were abducted, but two were released yesterday to facilitate negotiations with the government, the spokesman said.

April's general elections were so badly marred by vote-rigging that European Union observers said they fell ''far below basic international standards'' and were ''not credible.'' The poll result in Ondo, which gave sitting Governor Olusegun Agagu victory, is one of scores of results being challenged by opposition parties at election tribunals across the country.

A police spokesman in Ondo state said the kidnapping was being investigated.

A spokesman for the state government was not immediately available for comment.

The gang spokesman threatened to release pictures of government officials meeting gang members, supplying them with weapons and rigging results in their camps.

''It is a political matter that should be dealt with politically, but if they (the government) think we can be used and dumped, we will release documents that will embarrass them,'' he said.

April's polls were billed as a watershed for Africa's most populous country, marking the first democratic handover of power from one civilian to another in its 47-year post-independence history.

But fraud, violence and intimidation -- mostly by the PDP -- were so widespread the main local observer group called the elections a ''charade''.

President Umaru Yar'Adua, whose victory has been challenged by the opposition, acknowledged imperfections in the election but said he believed he had the mandate of the Nigerian people.

He promised to let the tribunals probe alleged abuses without interference and set up a 21-member panel to reform Nigeria's electoral system.

Reuters SLD DB1901