Nigeria’s president declares state of emergency in parts of country after recent attacks

Nigeria’s president declares state of emergency in parts of country after recent sect attacks

By Felix Onuah and Tim Cocks
Reuters

ABUJA- Coming nearly a week after radical sect Boko Haram set off a series of bombs across Nigeria on Christmas Day, including one at a church that killed at least 37 people and wounded 57, Jonathan told state television the measures would aim to restore security in troubled parts of Nigeria’s north.

“The temporary closure of our borders in the affected areas is only an interim measure designed to address the current security challenges and will be resumed as soon as normalcy is restored,” he said.

He added that his chief of defence staff had been instructed to take other “appropriate” measures, including setting up a special counter-terrorism force.

The blasts have raised fears that Boko Haram, a movement styled on the Taliban and whose name means “Western education is forbidden”, is trying to ignite sectarian strife in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and top oil producer.

Jonathan has been criticised by the opposition and Christian groups for what they said was a slow response to the bombings.

Jonathan, a Christian from the south, upset many northerners by running for and winning the presidency in April, which in the eyes of many tore up a tacit deal to rotate the top job between a northerner and a southerner every two terms.

More than 500 people were killed in post-election violence in the north after Jonathan’s victory, reflecting long-standing northern grievances about perceived alienation and exclusion by the central government from the fruits of national oil riches, concentrated in the south.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/01/01/nigeria-security-idINDEE80001D20120101