SUSPECTED Boko Haram gunmen yesterday and on Sunday shot dead a vigilante group leader, Muhamadu Wanzam (60) at his Potiskum residence in Yobe State.
Wanzam was trailed to his house from a community mosque after the evening prayers.
They also killed two men in Kaura Local Council of Kaduna State, and wounded a woman.
Chairman of the council, Mrs. Florence Aya, told journalists that security agents had commenced investigation into the incident.
Confirming the killing yesterday in Damaturu, Yobe State Police Commissioner, Tanko Lawan said four suspected Boko Haram gunmen walked to Wanzam’s house and fired several gunshots into his head and chest.
Lawan added: “Wanzam could have been the target of the Islamist sect because any individual or group of people that assists the police and other security agents in arresting suspected Boko Haram gunmen would become targets of the Islamists sect.
“No arrests have been made yet. The information provided by some residents indicated that four suspects came on foot with some rifles and fled towards Gashua road after the killing.”
Meanwhile, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has urged members of the Boko Haram sect to seize the opportunity offered for dialogue with the Federal Government in the interest of unity, stability and economic development of the country.
He made the call yesterday following renewed attacks by the sect in Jos and Gombe which led to the loss of lives at the weekend.
In a statement issued by his media office in Abuja, he said nobody will take the group or its agenda seriously if it continues to remain faceless.
Atiku spoke just as gunmen yesterday unleashed violence in some communities in In his statement, Atiku said it was high time members of the group stepped out in person to articulate their grievances and thereby open a window for dialogue. He reiterated his earlier position that there can be no justification for the killings of Nigerians under any guise.
He decried the killings and destruction of properties, noting that the activities of Boko Haram amount to a declaration of war on the Nigerian state.
“If Boko Haram and its leadership have something to say; if they have any grouse against the Nigerian state, the proper thing for them is to come out in flesh and state it, so that a process of dialogue that will eventually lead to the resolution of the crisis,” he said.
He expressed his condolences to the affected families and governments and people of Plateau and Gombe over the weekend killings.
And worried by the continued killing of policemen in the state by unknown gunmen operating on motorcycles and the general security situation in the state, the Niger State government has restricted the operation hours of both private and commercial motorcycles in Minna the state capital and its environs.
Announcing this in Minna yesterday, the state Commissioner for Information and Communication, Abdulhameed Umar, said the motorcycles operating in Minna and its environs would only be allowed on the roads between 7a.m. and 7p.m. every day until further notice.
The commissioner also said that plans were on the way by the government to phase out commercial motorcycles in the state and replace them with tricycles, which would be sold to current operators at subsidised cost.
And, disturbed by the incessant attacks and killings in the state, Kaduna State Governor, Patrick Yakowa, has said that the motive was to spark crisis in the state.
However, he urged all residents to be law-abiding as government was poised to fish out those perpetrating the attacks with a view to prosecuting them.
Yakowa stated this in a statement yesterday by his Media Aide, Mr. Reuben Buhari.
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