Gunmen Kill Prison Warden in Northern Nigeria
Gunmen killed a prison warden and a traditional chief in Nigeria's northern state of Bauchi where a radical Islamist sect is active, police said Wednesday.
A neighborhood leader who also works as a prison warden, Ibrahim Ali Figidi, was gunned down outside his house by two men who fled on a motorcycle in the typical hit-and-run style of the Boko Haram sect.
"They knocked on his door and he came out to see who the visitor was. They shot him three times and fled. We still don’t know who the attackers are," Bauchi police spokesman Mohammed Barau told Agence France Presse.
Attacks blamed on Boko Haram have been concentrated in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, but the sect that launched a botched uprising in 2009 has also been active in Bauchi.
Bomb blasts rocked an outdoor bar and killed more than a dozen people hours after President Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in on May 29. Boko Haram, also known as the Nigerian Taliban, claimed responsibility for that attack.
A day later, gunmen hurled a bomb and fired shots at a police station in Bulkacuwa, 180 kilometers north of the capital, killing one policeman.
In September last year, Boko Haram attacked a prison in Bauchi and freed more than 700 inmates.
Bauchi is one of the predominantly Muslim northern states hard hit by post-election riots that left 800 dead in April.
Boko Haram has been blamed for dozens of killings in the northeast of the country, where it targets security forces and community leaders.
Source: Agence France Presse
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