Boko Haram Storm Church During Service in Maiduguri

Gunmen suspected to be the radical Islamic sect; Boko Haram today launched an attack on a local Church of the Brethren- Ekilisiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN) in Maiduguri the Borno State capital while the Sunday service was in progress.

Today’s incident marks the first time that an attack will be launched on a church in the Maiduguri metropolis in broad daylight during Sunday service since the Boko Haram insurgence heightened in the area.

Worshippers said the gunmen numbering about five came to the church area located at Bulunkutu ward in the metropolis in a tricycle at about 11a.m and opened fire directly into the church targeting the worshippers when the sermon was being delivered.

They wondered how the gunmen could dare the soldiers in front of the church to launch such attack.

Spokesman of the Joint Task Force (JTF), Lt Col Sagir Musa who confirmed the incident said the troops at the church post immediately repelled the attack.

“They came firing into the church area but our men at the post rose to the occasion and fired back at them. We successfully repelled the attack and the gunmen fled immediately”

He revealed that a police attached to the JTF was hit by bullet but has been treated and discharged from the hospital.

900 out of 2400 corps members redeployed from Kano

Out of 2,400 members of the National Youth Service Corps in the  Batch A posted to Kano State for the 2012/2013 service year, about 900 of them have been redeployed to other states due to the current security challenge in the commercial city.

According to a report monitored on Channels TV on Tuesday, the state Coordinator of the NYSC  in the state, Salisu Yakasai, made this known during the closing ceremony of the Batch A orientation exercise in Kano on Tuesday.

The corps members were redeployed because of the recent  bomb attacks in the state with the latest being the attack at a motor park in the city.

Most of the corps members expected to undergo their primary assignments in the state were initially reported to have declined to report to the orientation camp.

Traumatised by the recent attack at the bus park,  majority of the fresh graduates sought to be redeployed to other parts of the country.

According to Yakassai,  the remaining 1,500 corps members would be posted to the rural areas of the state, which are considered safer.

Meanwhile, the state Deputy Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has promised corps members staying in the state  that the  state government would ensure the safety of the corps members in the state.

Apart from the attack on the bus park, where about 80 persons were believed to have lost their lives, nine riot policemen were also ambushed less than 24 hours after the bus park bombing, only escaping by the whiskers.

Police, FRSC, Others Injured In Kano Blast

An explosion occurred in the early morning of yesterday around Kantin Kwari Market junction in Kano Metropolis, injuring three people, a road safety official, a policeman and an official of the state Hisbah command. 

The blast occurred at about 8:45am near the traffic junction along the IBB Way, where the security officials normally gathered to control traffic in the area. A traffic warden, who was controlling traffic at the junction, and two other persons were severely injured in the blast, which was said to have shaken many houses in Fagge area and shops in the textiles market, sending people fleeing in different directions.   

Business activities at the famous Kantin Kwari Textile Materials were disrupted for several hours as police cordoned off the area.

Bomb blast St. Rita Catholic Church

A suicide bomber has attacked St. Rita Catholic Church in Malali area of Kaduna metropolis. The attack which seriously injured the Reverend father in the church occurred around 10:45 AM during mass.
I gathered that the bomber approached the church gate in a car, in the bid to drive into the church, but he was denied entrance by the security men.
The bomber then reversed the car and rammed it against the gate of the church. The gate caved in as the bomb exploded, injuring several churchgoers.
Although details are still sketchy, it was gathered that over 15 Worshippers were killed.
Read more shortly.

Boko Haram,'You can't Islamise - OBJ

From The Tribune

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo, on Friday, told members of the Boko Haram and their sponsors that they were living in a fool’s paradise if they believed that they could win their current war against the Nigerian state. Obasanjo, who was responding to questions on News Day on the British Broadcasting Corporation [BBC] news programme monitored in Ibadan, particularly declared that they were naive to think that they could turn the into country to an Islamic state.

Describing such mission as an unattainable objective, he said they would soon realise that they were engaging in a futile exercise, in spite of claims that Boko Haram had vowed to fight to the finish.

“People, who know the history of Nigeria, will know that you cannot impose any religion on Nigeria as a whole. The people Boko Haram cannot impose Sharia in the North, where most of our people are Muslims, let alone in the entire country. “By now, they should know that. So, I see a bit of naivety in that objective that they have given to themselves. It is an unattainable objective and we need to win their heart and mind,” Obasanjo stated.

On the declaration that the Boko Haram men had promised to sustain their current hostility against the country until their primary objective was achieved, the former leader subtly dismissed the claim as he saw it as a tall order.

He declared, “Well, if you are prepared to kill more people, it is like somebody saying we will fight to the last drop of our blood. Now, one doesn’t know whose blood will be the last to drop. How many people will be killed? How many of them will survive at the end of the day? Boko Haram and those who believe in their cause will soon know that yes, it not a war that they can win.”

Nonetheless, Obasanjo listed what he termed internal and external factors that culminated in the birth of Boko Haram.

According to him, they included the failure of leadership in the country, inadequate education in the North and the country generally, coupled with inadequate employment opportunities.

Another Bomb factory discovered in Kano

                                                                               

The JTF in Kano state North West Nigeria has discovered a bomb factory at an isolated part of Tamburawa Bridge –an outskirt of Kano city. Three people suspected to be terrorists were arrested during the early morning raid by JTF in the area saturday morning.Items recovered includes eight AK47 magazine, one SMG magazine, one SMG rifle, twelve primed IED, nine un primed IED, high calibre IED, assorted army uniform, chemicals used to make the bomb and six hundred and thirteen rounds of ammunition.

Gunmen kill Banker in Maiduguri

From Niyitabiti

Unknown gunmen shot and killed a young banker in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital yesterday. The banker was breaking his fast because of the ramadan on friday evening when the incident happened.

Sources disclosed that the banker known as Yakubu Abdullahi was in company of his friends when the gunmen entered with sophisticated guns and opened fire on him.The other people with him escaped but Abdullahi who was the target of the assasination was not lucky.

The Police Public Relations Officer of Borno State command,Gideon Jibrin who confirmed the incident said that the state commissioner of police has already ordered full scale investigation into the matter. He did not state if the killing was carried out by members of the islamist group, Boko Haram or not.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the killing yet.

Gunmen Raid Deeper Life Church In Okene Killing 15 Worshipers

Unknown gunmen opened fire in a crowded Deeper Life church near the Federal College of Education inOkene, Kogi state late last night killing 15 worshipers in the church. Several worshipers were critically wounded in the attack according to the local government chairman in the area.

Emergency workers said the casualty will likely increase in a few hours. Soldiers and police from the Joint Task Force in the state have cordoned off the area.

OBJ & IBB sues for peace

Not too long ago the two of them were engaged in a nasty public spat, but last weekend former Nigerian rulers General Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Babangida got together to issue a very important statement on the state of the nation. It was titled "A call for peace, tolerance and dialogue."

The main concern of the two leaders is the insecurity in the country and what they called the cynicism about the country's future that this had engendered. Their joint statement expressed concern over the growing state of insecurity in the country and called for scaling up of efforts to confront the security challenges. They also regretted that the growing insecurity situation in the country has led to cynicism among Nigerians.

Suicide bomb attack on Nigeria checkpoint kills eight

Picture credit: Lindaikeji.blogspot.com

A car packed with explosives exploded in Shagari Housing Estate of Damaturu in Yobe State around noon today.

"The lone suicide bomber detonated the bomb before the car he was in could be stopped, killing the six soldiers and one civilian," Patrick Egbmuniwe, the police commissioner for Yobe State, told Reuters by telephone.

"Another civilian died of his wounds in hospital shortly after."

Witness Abdullahi Sabo said the whole neighborhood shook when the Damaturu bomb exploded.

"The car blew up outside the front of my shop, the explosion was deadly," he said. "After the dust settled, many security operatives were rushed to the hospital."

In a separate incident, police said suspected sect members had shot dead a former commissioner for the environment in neighboring Borno state, the epicenter of the Boko Haram insurgency, in the early hours of Saturday.

2 killed, 30 wounded as Boko Haram strikes again

Photo from helenozor event blog.


Suicide bombings at two police stations Monday killed at least two persons in the northwestern Nigerian city of Sokoto, the historic seat of Islam in the country, officials and residents said.Separately, police guarding a home belonging to Vice President Namadi Sambo came under fire from gunmen in the northern city of Zaria, leaving one civilian dead. No one lives at the house, which is undergoing repairs from damage inflicted in post-election riots last year.

Blast Hits Jos

“There was an explosion this morning… in the Bukuru area of Jos South. The bomb was intended to blow up the secretariat of Jos South local government,” said the Plateau state governor’s spokesman Pam Ayuba. Details Sketchy At the Moment.