LAGOS (Reuters) - Politicians were in hiding in a part of southwest Nigeria on Saturday after rioters slashed a top parliamentarian with machetes and two other officials were killed, regional officials said.
Osun State Assembly Deputy Speaker Moses Gbotosho suffered a machete attack in the town of Ife on Thursday, Ayo Afolabi, spokesman for the Osun state governor, told Reuters.
``The assembly deputy speaker was traveling and had to pass through Ife,'' Afolabi said. ``He was pulled from his car and slashed with machetes. He is being treated at an undisclosed hospital.''
Osun State Governor Adebisi Bamdele Akande has ordered anti-riot police patrolling Ife to enforce a dusk to dawn curfew, Afolabi said.
Police restored order to the town on Friday after hundreds rioted, burning dozens of vehicles, at least five houses and the state radio station, police said.
Police said the violence was triggered by a crisis within the regional branch of the opposition Alliance for Democracy (AD), Nigeria's third largest party and the dominant party in the country's southwest region, which includes the commercial capital Lagos.
A local AD chairman was killed on Thursday and an MP was stabbed to death Wednesday, according to police. Afolabi said other politicians in Ife had now gone into hiding.
``As expected, all those who could be affected will lie low for quite some time,'' he said.
Analysts fear the clashes in Ife are a prelude to more widespread violence to come as the number local power struggles rise in the run-up to local elections.
Nigeria's two-year-old democracy faces one of its biggest challenges yet as the country's 36 state governors plan to defy a new electoral law and hold local elections in April.
Last week, gunmen invaded the Osun state assembly as members prepared to debate deteriorating relations between the governor and his deputy who had declared each other incompetent.