PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria (Reuters) - Unknown assailants threw dynamite at opposition coalition offices in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta on Friday, destroying the building but not claiming any casualties, police and party officials said.
"Around 3 a.m. today the youths attacked the APC secretariat at Ngor. The entire building was razed to the ground in the fire. I'm calling on the commissioner of police to investigate the matter," said local opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) official Ikwut Emmanuel.
Ahmed Muhammad, a police spokesman, confirmed the incident in Rivers state, but said he had no details as the blaze was still being investigated.
Nigeria holds presidential and governorship elections on Feb. 14 that are likely to be its closest since the end of military rule in 1999, with President Goodluck Jonathan facing off against former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari of the APC.
Violence is rising ahead of voting, and Rivers state, where outgoing Governor Rotimi Ameachi defected to the APC in 2013, is considered one of the major flashpoints.
Nigeria has a history of political thuggery and intimidation that have often marred its polls. Violence by Islamist group Boko Haram, which wants to establish an Islamic state in northeast Nigeria, is also surging ahead of the election.
A suicide bomber blew himself up at a market in the northeast Nigerian city of Gombe on Friday, killing at least six people and wounding 10, emergency workers on the scene said.
Security is a major campaign issue for candidates in the election and Jonathan has been criticised for not doing more to tackle the insurgency. His arch rival Buhari was seen as tough on security when he was a military ruler in the 1980s.