Suspected Islamist radicals kill Nigerian lawmaker

Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the bombing of the United Nation’s headquarters on August 26.

Abuja: A Nigerian lawmaker has been shot dead in the country`s northern Borno state by suspected members of radical Islamist sect Boko Haram, which has carried out a string of assassinations and bombings.

Modu Bintube was shot and killed in his home town of Maiduguri, police announced today.

"He was killed while at home on Sunday and we have commenced search for his attackers," a military spokesman said.

On Sunday, suspected members of the group killed a police officer and three civilians in another northern city of Gombe.

The unidentified gunmen entered a police base in Gombe through a cracked fence and dropped bombs at the armoury department and a nearby car park.

Four trucks and nine Toyota Hilux pick-up vans, including the one in which the dead police officer was resting, were gutted.

The three civilians killed were at the car park when the blast occurred.

Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sacrilege" in the local Hausa language, wants to establish Islamic sharia system in the oil-rich African country with 150 million people equally distributed among Christians and Muslims.

The sect claimed responsibility for the bombing of the United Nation’s headquarters in the country’s capital on August 26 which killed 23 people and injured more than 70.

It has been linked to al Qaeda`s franchise in the Maghreb, El-Shabab and recruits members in neighbouring Niger republic.

Its leader Yusuf was killed in 2006 by the Nigerian police after a confrontation with the members of the radical group that led to the killing of at least 800 people.

PTI

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