Al Qaeda targeting Nigeria, police chief warns

LAGOS (Reuters) – Al Qaeda Islamist militants have renewed their threat to bomb targets in Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer, a newspaper reported on Saturday quoting the national police chief.

The United States embassy in Nigeria said last September the country was at risk of “terrorist attack” and Osama bin Laden once named the world’s eighth biggest oil exporter as ripe for jihad or Islamic holy war.

“The al Qaeda network has threatened to send time bombs to Nigeria … CPs (commissioners of police) of all the commands should be on the alert and ensure that these items (bombs) do not pass through their end,” the Punch newspaper quoted Inspector General of Police Mike Okiro as saying.

He gave no details of what the targets might be, but he told a group of senior officers on Friday that intelligence reports showed the threat was real.

Reuters