Global General

Police station torched in northern Nigeria

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-10-12 22:28

LAGOS - A police station in Nigeria's troubled northern region of Gamboru in northern Borno State was set on fire by rioters, an officer reported on Tuesday.

Attackers torched the station on Monday night in an action reminiscent of a similar raid by a radical religious sect, Boko Haram a year ago, national police spokesman Emmanuel Ojukwu told reporters.

The Boko Haram launched the first arm of insurrection in the state in July, 2009, during which many were killed and wounded while properties were destroyed.

The sect's leader Mohammed Yusuf and his alleged financier Buji Foi were killed in a counter attack by the security operatives.

The state governor Ali Modu Sheriff has warned that his government will not allow the state turned into a gorilla zone by the activities of Boko Haram sect.

The governor assured both indigenes and non-indigenes alike of their safety.

Sheriff made this known when he briefed President Goodluck Jonathan about the activities of the sect which led to the death of an Islamic scholar on Saturday.

Sheikh Bashir Mustapha was said to have been shot dead alongside his student after openly criticizing the radical sect behind a spate of recent killings in the state.

The Islamic scholar was said to have just returned from a wedding when he was shot inside his home in the northern city of Maiduguri, a day after taking part in a radio discussion in which he condemned the radical Boko Haram sect, witnesses said.

Members of the sect staged an uprising in Maiduguri last year, attacking symbols of government authorities including prisons, police stations and schools, leading to clashes with security forces in which an estimated 800 people were killed.

Inmates at a prison holding Boko Haram members in Bauchi, southwest of Maiduguri, set part of the building on fire this week, a month after a jailbreak in which gunmen thought to be from Boko Haram freed hundreds of prisoners.

Boko Haram members said in a radio interview broadcast in the local Hausa language last month that they were behind recent shootings, and warned they would kill more officials.

Gunmen killed a vice chairman of the opposition All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) at his home in Maiduguri on Thursday, and local residents said they believed Boko Haram was responsible.