'Motor-bike riding gunmen kill 45 people in 3 months in Nigerian city'

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Attacks by gunmen riding motor bikes have killed at least 45 people in the past three months in Nigeria's largest northern city of Kano, the local media reported Wednesday, quoting Kano State Police Commissioner Ibrahim Idris.

Idris said 90 per cent of those killed were civilians while the remainder were security personnel.

The commissioner explained that the attacks were carried out mostly in sub-urban areas of the state capital, especially in Sheka, Hotoro, Sharada, Mariri, Panshekara and Rijiyar Zaki.

Though the police boss did not identify those responsible for the killings, the attack mode (using motor bikes to carry out attacks) is one of the preferred methods employed by the Islamic sect Boko Haram.

The sect has been active in the state since January, when it carried out its deadliest attack so far, killing over 180 people.

Boko Haram also claimed responsibility for April attack on Christian worshippers at the Bayero University campus in Kano, where over a dozen people were killed.

Since launching its violent campaign in 2009, Boko Haram, which means 'Western education is sin', has killed over 1,200 people, mostly in the predominantly-Muslim north and the capital city of Abuja, according to Chief of Defence Staff Oluseyi Petinrin.
-0- PANA SEG 27June2012