Abuja, Nigeria - Nigeria’s secret police say they are searching for an ex-soldier in connection with a Christmas Day bombing of a Catholic church that killed at least 44 people.
The State Security Service declared Habibu Bama wanted in connection with the Dec. 25 bombing of St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, a city just outside the capital Abuja.
Authorities said Wednesday they suspect Bama planted the bomb at the church, which detonated as worshippers left an early morning Mass. The radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram, which is waging an increasingly bloody sectarian fight with Nigeria’s weak central government, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Authorities just rearrested a man named Kabiru Sokoto in connection with the church attack after he previously escaped police custody.