GOMBE, Nigeria (AP) — Gunmen
attacked a church in northeast
Nigeria during a prayer service
Thursday night, killing at least
three people and wounding
others in an assault that
occurred amid an increasingly
violent campaign by a radical
Muslim sect.
Pastor Johnson Jauro said the
gunfire sprayed the Deeper Life
Church in Gombe, the capital of
Gombe state, injuring several
worshippers and killing his wife
and two others. He spoke at a
local hospital, where a joint team
of soldiers and police officers
stood guard. Local police
spokesman Ahmed Muhammad
confirmed the attack, but
declined to say how many
people the gunmen killed and
wounded.
The assault occurred as Nigeria
remains under attack by the sect
known as Boko Haram. The oil-
rich nation's president recently
put regions of the country under
a state of emergency due to the
threat, but that did not include
Gombe, which sits about 350
miles (570 kilometers) from
Nigeria's central capital, Abuja.
No one immediately claimed
responsibility for the attack, but
suspicion immediately fell on
Boko Haram. The sect has
carried out increasingly
sophisticated and bloody attacks
in its campaign to implement
strict Shariah law across Nigeria,
a multiethnic nation of more
than 160 million people.
Boko Haram, whose name
means "Western education is
sacrilege" in the local Hausa
language, is responsible for more
than 500 killings this year alone,
according to an Associated Press
count. The group claimed
responsibility for an attack that
killed at least 39 people in a
Christmas Day bombing of a
Catholic church near Abuja, as
well as a suicide car bombing
targeting the U.N. headquarters
in the capital that killed 25
people and wounded more than
100.
Nigeria's weak central
government has been slow to
respond to the sect.
On Dec. 31, President Goodluck
Jonathan declared regions of
Borno, Niger, Plateau and Yobe
states to be under a state of
emergency — meaning
authorities can make arrests
without proof and conduct
searches without warrants. He
also ordered international
borders near Borno and Yobe
state to be closed.
However, it remains unclear
what effect that will have on a
sect that has adopted hit-and-
run attacks and suicide bombings
to target the country's military
and police, as well as civilians.
Meanwhile, a military spokesman
said Thursday that soldiers killed
two armed men suspected to be
Boko Haram members after
"resisting arrest" in the
northeastern city of Maiduguri.
Lt. Col. Hassan Ifijeh Mohammed
said the army believes the
gunmen were responsible for an
attack Wednesday evening that
left two people dead.
However, human rights activists
say security forces have carried
out so-called "extra-judicial
killings" out of frustration and
anger at being unable to stop
Boko Haram.
___
Associated Press writers Ibrahim
Garba in Kano, Nigeria; Njadvara
Musa in Maiduguri, Nigeria and
Jon Gambrell in Lagos, Nigeria
contributed to this report.

So far no comment? People are selfishily fighting for fuel subsidy not taking their time to think if this incessant attack on Christians will not eventually become a threat on the continual existence of the country. Talking about putting the cart before the horse.

my heart bleed for the dead and tears for the wounded. I know very soon accounts will be called. It's only a matter of time before Nigeria implodes. Those crying for free fuel shame on you. This is the real issue - fellow countrymen murdered in cold blood by Islamic fundamentalists!

I pity those mumu christians guarding muslims in d Kano protest.

Now the SE would react

Christians open ur eyes the subsidy removal is not what we should be bothered about our brothers are been killed on a daily basis

Useless country conjoined between an animalistic north and a humanistic south.

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-839806.0.html

Death toll now 6 with 10 wounded.