By Rafiu Ajakaye
LAGOS
Nigerian authorities on Thursday warned of plots to use female suicide bombers to attack polling centers during the Feb. 14 general elections.
"Recent intelligence reports indicate that some unscrupulous Nigerians have perfected plans to surreptitiously collect, buy or steal the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) of female voters, handover same to female suicide bombers and create access for them into polling centers where they will detonate bombs and kill unsuspecting voters,"
Mike Omeri, the coordinator of counterterrorism center, told a weekly news briefing in capital Abuja.
"By this information, therefore, Nigerians, especially female voters, are warned to remain vigilant and also jealously guard and preserve their PVCs to avoid the possibility of their being lost to these bad elements who will put them to untoward uses," he said.
Nigerians will go to the polls on Feb. 14 to elect a president and members of the federal parliament.
Although 14 candidates will vie for the presidency, the poll is largely seen as a race between incumbent President Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler.
Buhari is running on the ticket of the opposition APC, an amalgam of political interests that have come together in an attempt to wrest power from Jonathan's People's Democratic Party, which has ruled the country since its return to democracy in 1999.
The alert about possible female suicide bombings comes amid controversy over whether or not the election should be held as scheduled.
A meeting of Council of State - a body of statesmen comprising former presidents, serving president, governors, justices and security chiefs - is currently holding in Abuja.
Controversy over the poll is said to be on the agenda as the country's electoral body chairman Attahiru Jega is also attending the meeting.
Jonathan's national security adviser, Sambo Dasuki, a retired military officer, recently suggested that the poll should be delayed because millions of voters had not yet received their permanent voter cards.
The opposition immediately rejected the proposal, however, dismissing it as an "ill-advised" plot by the ruling party and government to hold onto power.
A few days later, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Nigeria, where he held separate talks with both Jonathan and Buhari.
"The U.S. government strongly believes in Nigeria having credible, free and fair elections next month," said Kerry.
Jonathan, for his part, reiterated commitment to the polls.
"I call on all Nigerians to collect their permanent voters card and head to the polls with the full awareness that under a Jonathan presidency voters count and will be counted," he said in a four-paragraph post on his Facebook page Thursday.
