BOKO HARAM extremists killed 41 people at the weekend, scaring hundreds of people away from polling stations in north-eastern Nigeria.

However, millions of voters went to the polling stations across the country in the most closely contested presidential election in the nation’s history.

The front-runners among 14 candidates are President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the south, and former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari, from the predominantly Muslim north.

All the Boko Haram attacks took place in north-eastern Nigeria, where the military had announced on Friday that it had cleared the extremists from all major centres, including the headquarters of their so-called caliphate.

In the worst attack, Boko Haram killers invaded Miringa in Borno state, torching people’s homes and then shooting them as they tried to escape the smoke. Twenty-five people died in the atrocity

Voters are also electing 360 legislators to the House of Assembly, where the opposition currently has a slight edge over Mr Jonathan’s party.