21 June 2011

Men armed with guns and explosives have attacked a bank and police station northern Nigeria, killing seven people.

It is not known who carried out the the simultaneous attacks in the town of Kankara in Katsina state.

The attacks come as police chiefs from across Nigeria's 36 states are meeting in Abuja to discuss the threat posed by radical Islamist sect Boko Haram.

The group has carried out a wave of attacks targeting police, mainly in the north-eastern state of Borno.

Last Thursday, Boko Haram said it was behind the bombing of the national police headquarters in the capital, Abuja.

Correspondents say if Boko Haram is confirmed to be behind Monday's attack, it would be a further sign that the organisation's network is spreading to other parts of the country.

"The attackers were 10 in all, divided themselves in two groups and attacked the bank and the police station at the same time with guns and bombs," Kankara resident Salmanu Jabir told the AFP news agency.
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A spokesman for Boko Haram said police chief Hafiz Abubakar Ringim had been the target of Thursday's bombing at the police headquarters, in which eight people died.

The group says it is fighting for Islamic rule, and campaigns against all political and social activity associated with the West.

Boko Haram's leader Mohammed Yusuf and several hundred of his supporters were killed by security forces in Maiduguri in 2009 after the group attacked police stations.

After a lull, their attacks have intensified in the last nine months.

The sect's trademark has been the use of gunmen on motorbikes, killing police, politicians and anyone who criticises it, including clerics from other Muslim traditions and a Christian preacher.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13861739

Here we go. . . . .

Nigeria may be facing a war.

The Boko Haram sect yesterday issued a fresh threat of attack in some northern states with Kaduna, Plateau, Taraba and Benue marked as prime targets.

A statement from the website of the group said the terrorists were now ready for the Nigerian state after the training of their commandos in Somalia. In an e-mail sent to media houses by Yusuf Mohammed from the website www.yusufislamicbrothers..com, the sect stated that the alert was to warn civilians to avoid public places especially military formations.

“This alert is meant to notify civilians to avoid military formations, especially the police. We are stepping up our attacks in the coming weeks in all northern states. The failed assassination attempt on the IG of police will not deter us as we are going to attack the entire northern parts of the country, including Abuja.

“Avoid crowded places and gatherings. We are ready for the Nigerian state, after the training of our commandos in Somalia. Northern states such as Plateau, Kaduna, Taraba, Benue should watch out for us especially Kaduna State.”

The group said that what the country lawmakers were taking as allowances was unacceptable. “We wish to warn the RMAFC chairman, Mr. Elias Mbam, of his plan to increase the salaries and allowances of Nigeria’s thieving legislators.

“We have been monitoring his statements over the past days and it seems he is bent on his devilish agenda, when millions of Nigerians wallow in abject poverty and deprivation and state governments cannot even pay the N18, 000 minimum salaries.

"We would be forced to place a fatwa on the chairman of RMAFC, Elias Mbam, the commission responsible for setting allowances and salaries for public servants, if he does not review downwards the salaries and allowances of these thieving lawmakers with immediate effect,” the email added.

The sect also alleged that the pay of 469 federal lawmakers gulped N339bn in four years while the actual salary (on pay slip) was only N18.245bn. The group argued that at N45m per senator per quarter (N720m in 4 years), N42m per house member per quarter (N672m in 4 years), it takes N4, 881,394,960 to maintain 109 senators while N13, 364,450,550 is needed to maintain 360 house members.

“This is so because the rest of what is normally marked as jumbo pay will surface really in form of quarterly allowances the two chambers approved for themselves and called running cost quarterly allowances.

http://www.leadership.ng/nga/articles/1047/2011/06/21/boko_haram_strikes_katsina_kills_6_policemen_2_others.html