Terror SMSes put Nigeria on high alert

Abuja, Mar 30: Nigerian police and immigration services has step up security in the northern areas after receiving text messages which threatened fresh religious uprising.

The terror threat came shortly after a man was found murdered, leading violent protest in the north central city of Jos.

Military spokesperson, Brig General Donald Oji informed that some youth who were protesting the killing of a colleague by some unidentified people were dispersed by firing gun shots into the air.

The body of the deceased and the injured person have been taken to the Air Force Hospital in the city, he added.

In the past similar text messages have resulted in ruthless, unprovoked killings by such groups.

Jos has witnessed the killing of over 500 people in the religious violence between Christians and Muslims in the beginning of the year.

Police said that the texts were possibly sent by fundamentalist Islamist groups, which indulge in random killing and does not even spare those belonging to their own religion if they oppose their teachings.

Security have been beefed up around Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, where several people have been killed in random by the sect called Boko Haram, which claims of western education.

Another terror message received by a news agency warned of food poisoning by ethnic Hausas.

"Do not buy drink, apples or roasted meat from Hausa hawkers. They have considered in a meeting to poison drinks and to start killing at churches," it read.

Security has also been stepped up along the borders of countries that share boundaries with Nigeria such as Niger, Chad and Cameroon to prevent members of any fundamental Islam group from infiltrating any of those places to cause violence.

OneIndia News