Boko Haram kills NTA cameraman

Suspected members of a radical Islamist sect
shot dead a state television cameraman in
Maiduguri Saturday, union and military
sources said, in what could be the first
assassination of a journalist by the sect.
Boko Haram, whose name means “Western
education is forbidden,” has been blamed by
authorities for near daily shootings and
deadly bombings around Maiduguri, the
capital of Borno state, which sits in the far
northeast corner of Africa’s most populous
nation on borders with Cameroon, Chad and
Niger.
The sect’s attacks usually target the police,
military, prominent religious figures and
drinking spots but in recent weeks
journalists have been threatened by the
group, which says it wants sharia law more
widely applied across Nigeria.
Alhaji Zakariya Isa, a journalist working
for the government-owned Nigerian
Television Authority, was killed by gunmen
who attacked him at his home in Maiduguri.
“Zakariya was shot dead at his house in
Bulunkutu Gomari by suspected Boko Haram
this evening. We shall go to claim his body
tomorrow for burial,” said Abba Kakami, the
Borno state chairman of the Nigerian Union
of Journalists (NUJ).
“The NUJ will certainly take all the
necessary steps to protect its members from
further attacks.”
A member of the joint military task force
operating in Borno state confirmed the
incident, but asked not to be named.
It was not clear if Isa had been specifically
targeted by Boko Haram.
Boko Haram is growing in ambition and
sophistication and authorities in Nigeria and
abroad believe it has strengthening ties
with al Qaeda’s north African wing.
It claimed responsibility for Nigeria’s first
known suicide bombing in August, driving a
car full of explosives into U.N.
headquarters in the capital Abuja, killing 24
people.
It threatened reporters recently after the
group claimed spokesmen who weren’t part
of the sect were being quoted in the media.
The group has an ill-defined command
structure and many people claim to speak
on its behalf.