Posted by The Associated Press on
KANO, Nigeria: Unidentified gunmen killed a top Nigerian Muslim hard-liner as he led morning prayers Friday, police said.
KANO, Nigeria: Unidentified gunmen killed a top Nigerian Muslim hard-liner as he led morning prayers Friday, police said.
Mahmud Adam, the Saudi-trained leader of Nigerian followers of the ascetic Wahabbi strain of Islam, was killed along with his second-in-command in the northern city of Kano, said police spokesman Baba Mohamed.
It was unclear if the killings were related to elections that begin Saturday with voting for state legislators and governors, followed a week later with the presidential and federal parliament polls.
Adam's sect had been squabbling with a rival Muslim group in recent weeks. His Wahabbi strain has few followed in Nigeria.
The assassination of a top Muslim leader inside a house of worship on Islam's holiest day of the week is without precedent in predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria.
A new alliance could reshape the conflict in Darfur
About half of Nigeria's 140 million people are Muslim, with the others practicing Christianity or animist beliefs.