Suspected bomb attacks at a police station and a commercial bank in Kankara town in Katsina State yesterday left five policemen, including a Divisional Crime Officer (DCO) and one passer-by dead. No fewer than seven persons, sustained bullets wounds which left one in critical condition at Kankara General Hospital, Daily Sun gathered.

The hoodlums suspected to be members of the dreaded Islamic militant sect, Boko Haram, reportedly stormed the Kankara Police Station opposite the affected bank, and detonated some explosives before opening fire on the policemen at the station, killing three on the spot.

An eyewitness told Daily Sun that the hoodlums killed two police men inside the bank premises and left an innocent passer-by dead.
The gangsters reportedly arrived at the bank in Volkswagen Golf salon car but snatched a Toyota Corolla car before escaping from the town in two different routes.

The remains of the policemen were said to be on their way to Katsina as at the time of filing in this report but all efforts to reach the spokesman of the state police command, Abubakar Ibrahim Mohammed, for comments proved futile

The Boko Haram sect yesterday issued a fresh threat of attack in some northern states with Kaduna, Plateau, Taraba and Benue marked as prime targets.

A statement from the website of the group said the terrorists were now ready for the Nigerian state after the training of their commandos in Somalia. In an e-mail sent to media houses by Yusuf Mohammed from the website www.yusufislamicbrothers..com, the sect stated that the alert was to warn civilians to avoid public places especially military formations.

“This alert is meant to notify civilians to avoid military formations, especially the police. We are stepping up our attacks in the coming weeks in all northern states. The failed assassination attempt on the IG of police will not deter us as we are going to attack the entire northern parts of the country, including Abuja.

“Avoid crowded places and gatherings. We are ready for the Nigerian state, after the training of our commandos in Somalia. Northern states such as Plateau, Kaduna, Taraba, Benue should watch out for us especially Kaduna State.”

The group said that what the country lawmakers were taking as allowances was unacceptable. “We wish to warn the RMAFC chairman, Mr. Elias Mbam, of his plan to increase the salaries and allowances of Nigeria’s thieving legislators.

“We have been monitoring his statements over the past days and it seems he is bent on his devilish agenda, when millions of Nigerians wallow in abject poverty and deprivation and state governments cannot even pay the N18, 000 minimum salaries.

"We would be forced to place a fatwa on the chairman of RMAFC, Elias Mbam, the commission responsible for setting allowances and salaries for public servants, if he does not review downwards the salaries and allowances of these thieving lawmakers with immediate effect,” the email added.

The sect also alleged that the pay of 469 federal lawmakers gulped N339bn in four years while the actual salary (on pay slip) was only N18.245bn. The group argued that at N45m per senator per quarter (N720m in 4 years), N42m per house member per quarter (N672m in 4 years), it takes N4, 881,394,960 to maintain 109 senators while N13, 364,450,550 is needed to maintain 360 house members.

“This is so because the rest of what is normally marked as jumbo pay will surface really in form of quarterly allowances the two chambers approved for themselves and called running cost quarterly allowances.

“The breakdown is: N42 million for every member of the (lower) house, amounting to N168 million per annum, or N672 million in four years. Similarly, the very ‘distinguished senator’ will go home with N720 million in four years (N45m per quarter, or N180m per annum). What will reflect on the pay slips of the lawmakers would be the statutory salary, which will come to a meagre N18.245 billion for the two chambers in four years. Of these statutory figures, N4, 881,394,960 will be spent on the 109 senators while the remaining N13, 364,450,550 will be spent to maintain the 360 members of the House of Representatives,” the group stated.

http://www.leadership.ng/nga/articles/1047/2011/06/21/boko_haram_strikes_katsina_kills_6_policemen_2_others.html