Nigeria Polition and Others Shot and Killed

The city of Maiduguri

   
 Modu Fannami Gubio was shot and killed Friday by men on motorbikes in Maiduguri city after praryers. Gubio was the candiate for the All Nigeria People's Party in April, running for governer in the north eastern state Borno. Four others were killed in the attack, including a 10-year-old child.

     Gubio was outside of his father's home, talking to supporters, when two men rode by on bikes, each with a gun. They fired into the crowd; the killers have not yet been caught.

     Similar ride-by assassinations over the last few months have been planed on the Boko Haram sect, locally know as the Taliban. This group wants to see Islamic laws imposed in Nigeria; the sect is also opposed to Western education and ideas. The violence started in July 2009, when the sect attacked a police station.

     The assassination of Gubio this Friday shows some of the turmoil in the political structure of Nigeria in the face of elections. The terroist group responsible for the death of the politition and civilians is a clear example of political violence, as well as coinciding cleavages involving Western thinking and religion.