Nigerian Ex-Police Inspector, Two Others Killed by Militants

bloomberg

Suspected Islamist militants in Nigeria shot dead a retired police inspector and two of his friends in front of his house in Maiduguri, capital of the northeastern Borno state, a security official said.

The shooting occurred after the gunmen tried to attack a Joint Task Force checkpoint in Maiduguri, Lieutenant-Colonel Sagir Musa, spokesman for the force, said in a phone interview yesterday from the city.

“The attack was repelled, the sect retreated through paths to different locations only to recognize and shoot dead a retired police inspector and two of his friends,” Musa said. “The affected area was immediately cordoned off and searched. No culprit was arrested and no weapon recovered.”

Authorities in Africa’s top oil producer blame Boko Haram, which draws inspiration from Afghanistan’s Taliban movement, for a surge of violence in the mainly Muslim north and in Abuja, the capital, in which more than 1,000 people have died since 2009. The group claimed responsibility for multiple blasts and attacks in the city of Kano on Jan. 20 that killed at least 256 people, according to the Civil Rights Congress.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gbenga Akingbule in Maiduguri via Nairobi at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dulue Mbachu at dmbachu@bloomberg.net.