A RADICAL Muslim sect reponsible for attacks that left more than 100 people dead in northeast Nigeria could bomb three luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in the oil-rich nation’s capital, American officials in the country said last night.
The warning by diplomats from the US embassy identified possible targets of the sect known locally as Boko Haram as the Hilton, Nicon Luxury and Sheraton hotels. Those hotels draw diplomats, politicians and Nigeria’s business elite daily in the country’s central capital of Abuja.
The embassy said the attack may come as Nigeria celebrates the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha and that its diplomats and staff had been instructed to avoid those hotels.
Nigerian Red Cross official Ibrahim Bulama said he expected the number of dead to rise as local clinics and hospitals count the casualties from the attacks on Friday in Damaturu, the capital of rural Yobe state.
While the hard-hit city remained calm and its Muslim inhabitants celebrated the religious holiday, army and police units manned roadblocks leading into the town and streets remained largely quiet, Mr Bulama said.
Residents still in shock questioned how the gunmen were able to take over the city and wreak havoc with such apparent ease.
“I am a Muslim but what is happening in Nigeria now is unacceptable. President Jonathan and his security chiefs should take control of the situation. We are tired of these terrorist acts,” said Abdulgafar Bello, 48, a market trader.
Meanwhile, Boko Haram gunmen killed a police inspector yesterday in the city of Maiduguri, their spiritual home about 80 miles east of Damaturu. The gunmen stopped the officer’s car as he neared a mosque to pray with his family, local police commissioner Simeon Midenda said.
They ordered the family away, then shot the inspector, Mr Midenda said.
The killing prompted a frank acknowledgment from the police commander, whose men remain under siege from constant assassinations.
“Our men who live in the midst of the Boko Haram are not safe,” Mr Midenda said.
The UN’s Security Council called the attacks on Friday “criminal and unjustifiable” and asked member nations to help Nigerian authorities bring those responsible to justice.
A statement on behalf of secretary-general Ban Ki-moon called for “an end to all violence in the area,” while offering sympathy for the victims.
Pope Benedict XVI yesterday called for an end to all violence, saying it only increased problems, sowing hatred and division even among the faithful.
Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attacks, which included suicide bombings and shootings.
The group wants to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria, an oil-rich nation of more than 160 million which has a predominantly Christian south and a Muslim north.
Its name means “western education is sacrilege” in the local Hausa language, but instead of schooling, it rejects Western ideals such as Nigeria’s democracy that followers believe have destroyed the country with corrupt politicians.
The group became active in about 2003 and is concentrated mainly in the northern states of Yobe, Kano, Bauchi, Borno and Kaduna.
A state-sponsored committee urged establishing a dialogue with the group in September, an idea reiterated yesterday by the governor of Borno, the worst affected state.
Nigeria, with a population split nearly evenly between Christians and Muslims, is mostly peaceful, but growing militancy in the north and violence in the ethnically and religiously mixed “middle belt” are an increasing problem.