Nigerian sect says killed journalist for spying

Reuters

25 October 2011

Nigerian sect says killed journalist for spying

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - A Nigerian Islamist sect said it killed a state television cameraman because it had evidence that he was an informant for the security services, and the group warned it would kill anyone else who "steps on our toes".

Alhaji Zakariya Isa, a journalist working for the government-owned Nigerian Television Authority, was killed on Saturday by gunmen who attacked him at his home in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, in the far northeast where Africa's most populous nation borders Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is forbidden", has been behind dozens of shootings in Nigeria's northeast this year, usually targeting authority and religious figures.

This is the first journalist to have been slain by the sect, although it has warned reporters not to misquote Boko Haram.