No fewer than 12 persons were shot dead by members of dreaded sect, Boko Haram, across Borno State on Thursday.
Among those hit were a businessman, Alhaji Abubakar Girigiri and three security agents.
Girigiri, 58, was shot dead by gunmen at his warehouse in the Bolori area of Maiduguri, the state capital.
The suspected Boko Haram members, who came on foot, pretended to be customers.
The gunmen, eyewitnesses said, were teenagers.
One of the eyewitnesses, Mallam Modu Lawal, said: “A group of four teenagers arrived the warehouse on foot and met Girigiri attending to his business.
“After a short while, two of them brought out guns from their trousers and shot him at close range.
“We tried to rush him to the hospital for help but he died before we could do anything.”
The spokesman, Borno State Police Command, Gideon Jibrin, confirmed the incident.
Jibrin, however, said he was yet to get details of the killing of Girigiri.
The police spokesman also confirmed the killing of seven persons in Jere Local Government Area of the state by gunmen.
He said: “The police are trying to get the full details of the report so we can unravel the mystery behind the killings.”
Confirming the killing of three security agents in Borno State, the Joint Task Force, Operation Restore Order, said they were shot dead in the early hours of Thursday at the Ruwan Zafi area of Maiduguri.
The spokesman of the JTF, Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, said the task force was already after the suspected killers.
Musa said: “This is to confirm that three security men were killed in the early hours of the day by suspected members of the Boko Haram group.
“Efforts are on to apprehend the killers.”
