Boko Haram sect plans more attacks, says Prisons boss

Members of a radical Islamist sect who staged an uprising in northern Nigeria, in which no fewer than 800 people died, are preparing further attacks, a top security official said Monday.

Kano State prisons chief, Mr. Lawan Abubakar, said the Boko Haram sect are regrouping to attack prisons in Kano City holding 58 suspected sect members.

The 58 are facing charges of illegal assembly, breach of public peace and assault after a recent crackdown on the group, which sparked the bloody uprising in several northern states last  July.

Fifty-three other Boko Haram suspects have been charged with treason in neighbouring Bauchi State.

“From security reports at our disposal, the Boko Haram sect is regrouping in Kano and members of the sect are hatching a grand plan to attack prisons in the state to free their colleagues arrested during the violence,” Abubakar told reporters.

He said the reports indicated the sect was regrouping in Gezawa village, 30 kilometres outside Kano.

The detainees were arrested in a police raid on their hideout in Wudil, west of Kano, following a dawn attack on a police station in which three officers were wounded.

“We have reinforced security around the prisons where the Boko Haram (suspects) are being kept with more policemen and vigilante members,” Abubakar said.

However, police in Kano denied any knowledge of sect members gathering in the state.

“We are not aware of such reports and there is nothing to suggest the Boko Haram is planning any comeback. We are on top of the situation,” said Kano State police spokesman Baba Mohammed. The arrested suspects are being held mostly in the Central and Goron Dutse prisons in Kano.