Abuja - Nigeria's electoral commission approved on Monday the resumption of political campaigning, the body said in a statement, after the general elections were delayed by a week last Saturday.
On Saturday, the commission's chairman told parties to stop campaigning, despite the election being postponed from February 16 to February 23. Campaigning is typically banned the day before the election.
President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday warned that anyone trying to tamper with Nigeria's postponed vote risked their lives and accused the electoral commission of incompetence.
Buhari said anyone trying to steal or destroy ballot boxes and voting material in the election now scheduled to take place this coming Saturday would be dealt with firmly.
"I have given the military and the police instructions to be ruthless. We are not going to be blamed for the bad conduct of the election," he told an emergency meeting of senior members of his All Progressives Congress (APC) party in the capital Abuja.
He said anyone trying to intimidate voters or interfere with the voting "will do it at the expense of his own life".