Police in northern Nigeria say suspected members of a radical Islamic sect have killed a lawmaker.

Authorities said gunmen shot Modu Bintube late Sunday while he was standing outside his home in the city of Maiduguri.

Officials blamed the attack on Boko Haram. The group has been blamed for many bombings and shootings aimed at authority figures in northeastern Nigeria, and has also claimed responsibility for the June bombing of Nigeria's police headquarters in Abuja.

The group wants a strict form of Islamic law applied more widely across Africa's most populous nation.