Al-Qaeda Affiliate Boko Haram Assassinates Christian Church Leader in Nigeria
by Jim Kouri
Clash Daily Guest Contributor
Members of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Boko Haram allegedly assassinated a Christian leader on Tuesday in Nigeria’s northeast Borno State, according to an Israeli police intelligence analyst who monitors African Islamist groups.
According to a spokesman from the National President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev Ayo Oritsajafor, Rev Faye Pama Musa was shot dead at about 7:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday at his residence in Maiduguri by Boko Haram jihadists.
“The Borno CAN secretary has been killed. We’ve got the report and the national president received it with heavy heart. It is very sad,” the spokesperson added in a statement.
The Israeli police source said that there were reports that the deceased Christian pastor had “attempted to run away but his assailants caught him and they “shot him at close range.”
The killing of the popular Christian pastor occurred shortly after Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan, declared a state of emergency in the most troubled states in the northeast part of the country where Boko Haram is believed strongest.
The states most at risk for Boko Haram attacks are Yobe, Adamawa, and Borno, the source noted.
Also on Monday, the Boko Haram sect claimed responsibility for the recent major assault on Baga and Bama, in Borno state, in which up to 200 people, including soldiers, policemen, prison warders and civilians, were massacred.
Meanwhile, last week Nigerian police and security forces reported that upwards of 60 people were fatally wounded when suspected al-Qaeda affiliate Boko Haram Islamists attacked security formations in Nigeria’s terrorist-infested Borno region, according to Jorge Vega, an international counterterrorism and security expert.
A Nigerian spokesman for the Joint Task Force (JTF) in Borno, Col. Sagir Musa, reported that the gunmen attacked Bama, a commercial town about 200 miles away from Maiduguri, which is the Boko Haram-controlled region.
“Suspected Boko Haram terrorists in 18-seater buses and vehicles mounted with anti aircraft machine guns, attempted an attack on 202 Battalion Barracks in Bama, about 10 insurgents were killed during exchange of fire. We lost 2 soldiers during the attack,” Col. Musa said in a statement. “They came in army uniforms pretending to be soldiers but were able to detect them,” he added.
According to Jorge Vega, the Boko Haram terrorists also executed 14 Nigerian prison officials in cold-blood and they freed more than 100 Islamist prisoners, who will probably return to the battlefield.
The suspected terrorists also torched a police station and its adjoining police barracks, as well as a local courthouse and Bama’s government complex where some of the buildings were totally destroyed.
During the attack, the terrorists perpetrated extensive arson on the divisional police station and police barracks. More than 20 police officers lost their lives, while three Children and a woman were burned to death.
In April, a fierce battle in Baga, Nigeria between security forces and Islamic terrorists left at least 200 Nigerians dead in that nation’s northeast coastal region, an Israeli terrorism analyst who monitors jihad in Africa said.
