Kabiru Sokoto christmas day bomber rearrested.

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - Nigerian police arrested

an escaped convict suspected of

masterminding a Christmas Day church

bombing that killed at least 44 people in an

attack claimed by a radical Islamist sect, an

official said Friday.

Kabiru Sokoto's escape just a day after his

arrest led to national embarrassment and to

the firing of the country's top police official.

Presidential spokesman Reuben Abati told The

Associated Press on Friday that members of

the nation's secret police arrested Sokoto in

Taraba state, which borders Cameroon. Abati

said he had no other details about the arrest,

and referred questions to the State Security

Service.

A spokeswoman for the secret police agency

declined to immediately comment. However,

another security official who spoke on

condition of anonymity as he was not

authorized to speak to journalists, said

officers arrested Sokoto as he hid behind a

clothesline at a home in the state.

Sokoto will be flown back to Abuja, Nigeria's

capital, on an air force flight, the official said.

Police named Sokoto, an alleged member of

the radical sect known as Boko Haram, as the

prime suspect for the Dec. 25 bombing of St.

Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, a city just

outside of Abuja.

However, Sokoto escaped from police custody

a day after his arrest, an embarrassment for

Nigeria's ill-equipped federal police. President

Goodluck Jonathan later fired the nation's top

police official a few months before his

mandated retirement.

The bombing struck just after 8 a.m. as

worshippers began to leave the sanctuary

after a morning service. A car bomb

detonated near the church's front steps,

cutting down those leaving.

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