Hundreds of thousands of people had turned out for the rally at a polo ground in the northern city of Kano for Muhammadu Buhari, a former military dictator seen as the main rival to President Goodluck Jonathan.
But having travelled to the venue and seen the mammoth crowd, which was overflowing into the surrounding streets, he decided not to enter because of security concerns, a political associate, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
He made the decision to “avoid stampede and loss of lives,” the politician said.
“Having considered the security implication of going to the venue of the rally, given the unbelievable crowd that gathered waiting for him, he decided not to go to the rally ground.”
The venue was so crammed that people had to perch on nearby building walls and atop wooden sheds. One shed collapsed from the weight of people on it seriously injuring six people, an AFP reporter saw.
Hoards of sweat-drenched loyalists danced to the beat of praise songs blaring from loudspeakers hoisted on roofs of cars and buses in and outside the rally ground.
Two weeks ago Jonathan staged his own rally at the same venue, trying to woo voters with promises to unite the country.
Buhari, a northern Muslim, enjoys tremendous support in the predominantly Muslim north.
This part of the country has reacted angrily to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party’s decision to field Jonathan, a southern Christian, as its presidential candidate.
The move upsets an unwritten agreement to rotate power between the north and the south every eight years to smoothe over Nigeria’s ethnic and sectarian divide.
Jonathan came to power in May last year after the death of his predecessor Umaru Yar’adua two years into his first tenure.
The north felt the region should produce the next president to complete the eight years allotted to it.
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