Publisher Claims Victory in Nigeria Election

Billionaire publisher Moshood K.O. Abiola claimed victory Friday in the election for Nigeria’s first civilian president since 1979 and urged the military government to release the official results.

He made the announcement at a news conference after a human rights group had defied a government ban and announced the results, which showed Abiola the winner by a landslide.

“I clearly won the election,” Abiola said in remarks broadcast on state-owned Nigerian Television.

It was unclear what effect Abiola’s announcement would have on the tension in Africa’s most populous nation, where release of the official results of last Saturday’s balloting was banned pending the outcome of a lawsuit by supporters of the military regime.

Soldiers and riot police were posted in some of the more volatile parts of the country as the clamor grew for the regime of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida to make good on his promise to transfer power to a civilian government.

The lawsuit by his supporters contended that the balloting was rigged. Britain, which sent many of the foreign observers who monitored the election in its former colony, said the vote appeared fair and urged that a winner be declared.

The Lagos-based Campaign for Democracy said the final tally showed Abiola, 55, winning 19 of Nigeria’s 30 states to 11 for banker Bashir Tofa, 46.

The most recent official tallies, from Tuesday, showed Abiola winning 12 states to three for Tofa. Final results were widely circulated among politicians and activist groups, despite a government ban on their publication.

Campaign for Democracy chairman Beko Ransome-Kuti said Abiola also exceeded by eight states the requirement that the winner get at least one-third of the vote in at least 20 states.

Results released by Abiola’s Social Democrats showed him winning 8,128,720 votes nationwide compared with 5,848,247 for Tofa. The party announced the results on national television. Both candidates are Babangida’s personal friends.

Babangida has promised to turn over power on Aug. 27. But many Nigerians doubt that the military--which has run Nigeria for all but 10 of its 33 years of independence--will return to the barracks after enjoying the fruits of government corruption and graft.