Lagos, Nigeria - Four gunmen suspected to be members of the Islamic fundamentalist group Boko Haram Sunday shot dead a party chieftain in Nigeria's northern Borno state, in the latest of such serial killings. The private Daily Trust newspaper reported Monday that the gunmen, who rode on a motorcycle, shot dead Alhaji Modu Gana Makanike, a ward chairman of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), the ruling party in the state, shortly after a political meeting he attended in the state capital Maiduguri. The paper quoted eyewitnesses as saying the gunmen apparently killed Makanike in error, as their actual target appeared to be the special adviser to state Governor Ali Modu Sheriff on Political Affairs, Alhaji Baba Kura Habeeb, who was also at the meeting.

The Boko Haram sect has been blamed for a series of recent high profile killings in the state.

In one of such killings, gunmen shot dead the ANPP governorship candidate in the state, Modu Fannami Gubio, in January.

Pana 28/03/2011