Boko Haram 'Spokesman' Claims Nigeria Attacks on Christians

A purported spokesman for Islamist group Boko Haram on Friday claimed responsibility for separate attacks on a church and Christian mourners in Nigeria that killed around 20 people.

The spokesman who goes by the name Abul Qaqa also said the attacks were in response to an ultimatum he issued on Sunday giving Christians three days to leave the country's mainly Muslim north.

"We are responsible for the attacks in Mubi and Gombe," the purported spokesman, who has claimed to be speaking on behalf of Boko Haram numerous times in the past, told journalists in the northeastern city of Maiduguri by phone.

"We are extending our frontiers to other places to show that the declaration of a state of emergency by the Nigerian government will not deter us ... We can really go to wherever we want to go."

He called on the federal government to release all arrested Boko Haram members as a condition for attacks to stop.

"The attacks are part of our response to the ultimatum we gave to southerners to leave the north," he said.