Suspected Islamists attack Nigerian town hours before poll

A screengrab taken from a video released by the Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko Haram. [File, AFP]

Suspected Islamist militants on Saturday attacked a northeastern Nigerian town, forcing people to flee hours before presidential election polls were due to open, residents said.

“We have fled, along with our wives and children and hundreds of others,” Ibrahim Gobi, who lives in the town of Geidam in Yobe state, said by telephone.