3 killed in attack on police station in Nigeria

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Two police officers and one civilian were killed when gunmen attacked and burnt a police station in Mafa council area of Nigeria's northern Borno state, the spiritual base of the Islamic sect Boko Haram, at the weekend, the military said Monday.

Spokesman for the military Joint Task Force (JTF) deployed in the state, Col, Musa Sagir, said in a statement obtained by PANA that soldiers were quickly drafted to the area to help restore normalcy, in the wake of the attack which took place on Saturday.

Meanwhile, in a separate incident, the task force on Sunday raided the hideouts of the Islamic sect in the London Ciki and Gwange areas of the state capital, Maiduguri, and shot dead two members who were suspected to have killed a senior official of the Nigerian Prisons, Malam Usman Laskari Umar earlier in the day.

Sources close to the JTF told PANA that five suspects were arrested in the raid.

Boko Haram has been terrorizing residents of states in the predominantly-Muslim northern Nigeria since 2009, following the extra-judicial killing of its leader, Mohammed Yusuf, by the police.

Since then, the sect has killed over 1,200 in gun and bomb attacks.
-0- PANA SEG 14May2012