Police held over bomb suspect’s escape

The main suspect in a Christmas Day bomb attack on a church just outside Nigeria’s capital escaped within 24 hours of his arrest, and the police officers involved in the case have been detained pending an investigation, the government said yesterday.

Islamist sect Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the bombing of St Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, on the outskirts of Abuja, which killed 37 people and wounded 57, the deadliest of a series of a attacks over Christmas.

Police arrested Kabiru Sokoto on Tuesday and while they were taking him from police headquarters to his house in Abaji, just outside Abuja, to conduct a search there, their vehicle came under fire.

“The policemen on escort with the suspect were attacked by the suspected sect gang members and in the process the suspect [was] freed,” police spokesman Olusola Amore said. “The police view this development as a serious negligence on the part of the commissioner of police and have since suspended him from duty,” he added.

Police inspector general Hafiz Ringim has been called in to explain the circumstances that led to the suspect’s escape.

It the second year in a row that Boko Haram has attacked churches at Christmas. Its strikes raise fears that the militants are trying to ignite sectarian strife.