Police in Nigeria's northwestern Sokoto state recorded three assassinations Sunday, according to the Police Commissioner, Shehu El-Othmand. Police have yet to confirm whether the first attack was religiously-motivated, but that the murder was committed near the palace of the Emir of Sokoto, the revered leader of Nigerian Muslims, El-Othman told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. El-Othman said that a group of people stormed a house in the Gidadawa area of Sokoto city near the Muslim leader's domain Sunday and attacked youths who had been sleeping outdoors to escape the heat. "One Aliyu Shehu was killed on the spot while the assailants inflicted injuries on five other persons," he said. Othman added that two knives and a bag containing petrol were recovered from the scene of the attack. A person named Husseini Bello, who was recording Shehu's burial on a video camera hours later, was also lynched by youths at the cemetery, he said.
