Bomb scare disrupts opposition rally in NE Nigeria

Reuters

30 March 2011

Bomb scare disrupts opposition rally in NE Nigeria

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Police in Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri thwarted a plot to bomb an opposition party election rally on Tuesday, while gunmen shot dead five people in separate incidents.

Violence has marred the run-up to elections next month in the remote city in Borno state near Nigeria's borders with Chad, Cameroon and Niger. Politicians, religious leaders and police officers have been targeted in a spate of killings.

The attacks have been blamed on Boko Haram, a radical Islamist sect behind an uprising which killed hundreds of people in 2009, but residents and diplomats suspect they are primarily politically motivated.