The leader of the al Qaeda-linked group Ansaru called for attacks on Christians in Nigeria to avenge an alleged insult to Islam at a Catholic school in Katsina; youths torched the school and two churches. Two suspected Boko Haram suicide car bombs targeted a military patrol in Maiduguri, and two other suicide car bombs were detonated by military gunfire; five soldiers were wounded. Mallam Lamido Sanusi, the suspended governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, is being investigated on suspicion of financing terrorism. Elders in Borno and Yobe accused the military of ignoring airdrops of weapons and supplies to terrorists in known strongholds and of withdrawing in advance of attacks, and called for an end to the state of emergency as it has achieved nothing. Police arrested 40 armed “political thugs” in Sokoto state suspected of attacking the governor’s convoy.
