The Council of Ulema in Kano State, mainly-Muslim northern Nigeria’s populous region, joined the chorus of protests, calling for the April 19 presidential vote to be annulled and rerun across much of the country. “Based on the details of malpractices ... the elections should be rerun in areas where massive fraud took place and in the areas where elections did not take place at all,” said council chairman Umar Ibrahim Kabo.

“Let me remind all those who did anything in the last elections which knowingly deprived others of their rights to remember that Allah does not sleep,” he warned. The Ulema are hugely influential among Nigeria’s Muslims, who make up around half of the country’s 120-million-strong population, and their intervention will fuel opposition to the president’s disputed victory.

Obasanjo’s chief political adviser hit back at the criticism and warned that interventions by religious leaders could stir dangerous passions. “I think this is part of a very dangerous trend, which is the politicization of religion or introducing religious elements into Nigerian politics,” Gbolade Osinowo told AFP. Obasanjo is a Christian and a former military ruler. His ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dominated last month’s state, presidential and parliamentary polls, the first since the end of military rule. But his main opponent, a Muslim and former ruler Muhammadu Buhari, has refused to accept defeat and has challenged the election results in court.

Independent Nigerian and international monitors reported that the elections, the first in Africa’s most populous country since the end of military rule, were marred by widespread ballot rigging and intimidation. Buhari’s All-Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) made gains in mainly Muslim northern Nigeria in last month’s polls, while Obasanjo’s PDP confirmed and extended its domination on the mainly Christian south.

Neither party campaigned on an overtly religious platform, but the post-election bitterness has increased fears of violence in a country where more than 10,000 people have been killed since Obasanjo came to power.