Soyinka urges new Nigeria polls

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Nigeria's Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has joined those calling for the presidential election to be cancelled.

Mr Soyinka said the West should deny entry visas to election commissioner Maurice Iwu for his "complicity in the fraudulent elections."

Mr Soyinka has often condemned the government but he has also criticised opposition leader Muhammadu Buhari.

Abuja cleric Umar Aliyu has meanwhile urged Nigerians to "resist oppression" at Friday's Muslim prayers.

Mr Buhari, who was defeated by ruling party candidate Umaru Yar'Adua, attended the prayers in a mosque in the Wuse II area of the capital, Abuja.

"As Muslims, we must avoid oppression and resist it in all forms," Mr Aliyu told the congregation of several hundred people.

"Nigerians queued up last Saturday to vote and followed was oppression of the people's will. This has to be rejected."

Election re-runs

In commercial capital Lagos, Mr Soyinka told reporters:

"I call for the annulment of these ridiculous elections. We believe that it is not right to accept the unacceptable."

Mr Yar'Adua is to be sworn in next monthHe said he has heard of the financial prudence and moral uprightness of Mr Yar'Adua.

"I wish he [Mr Yar'Adua] would carry his decency even further by publicly renouncing this poisoned chalice to say: 'I'm not a receiver of stolen goods'," Mr Soyinka said.

Despite all the criticism of the presidential and state polls held the previous week, the election commission, Inec, says it is ready for polls in 27 states, where elections were not concluded.

Voters in the south-eastern Imo State are due to choose a governor after elections were suspended due to violence and confusion over the governing PDP's nominated candidate.

It was initially reported that governorship elections were also postponed in Enugu State but the PDP candidate was later declared to have won.

There are 11 outstanding senatorial seats, 48 House of Representatives seats and 57 local state legislative seats up for grabs across the 27 states.