Boko Haram executes village chief, 11 others in Borno  

Boko Haram Islamists have executed 12 people including a village chief in a remote part of Borno state, residents said Saturday.

The attackers entered the village of Garubula, in Biu district, Borno state late Wednesday and dragged their victims out of their homes before shooting them, the residents said.

“They killed 12 people including the village chief whom they shot in the head,” said resident Mallam Idrissa told AFP.

Wednesday also saw bombings in north-central Kaduna blamed on Boko Haram in which 42 people died while the presumed targets of the attacks — a prominent cleric and a former head of state — escaped with their lives.

Boko Haram, which is seeking to install an extremist Islamic state in Nigeria, has recently stepped up attacks on remote villages in the northeast.

Dozens of Boko Haram gunmen raided the town of Rann in Borno state on the border with Cameroon on Friday, meeting fierce resistance, residents said.

Before beating a retreat, the insurgents hurled explosives into the police station, setting it ablaze, and bombed a local administrative building and a government lodge, they said, adding that no casualties were recorded.

“They came into town around 6:00 pm and made straight for the police station where they opened fire and the police responded, resulting in a shootout that lasted for one hour,” resident Bunu Faltaye told AFP.

Another resident, Abdullahi Brema, gave a similar account of the clash.

Then early Saturday the attackers went to Sigal village seven kilometres (four miles) away and abducted a police officer from his house, said Timothy Musa, another resident.

“We have no idea where they are holding him and we fear for his life,” Musa said.

An army spokesman meanwhile said the security forces fear that Boko Haram has “perfected plans to launch multiple bomb explosions in Maiduguri” — the biggest city in the northeastern region and Boko Haram’s spiritual home — to coincide with celebrations of the end of Ramadan early next week.

As a result, authorities have declared a three-day ban on “all vehicular movement” in the city from Monday, Mohammed Dole said in a statement.