Gunmen kill 5 in Nigerian city

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - Unknown gunmen on Monday shot dead five persons, three of them brothers, in Nigeria's northern city of Maiduguri, according to the local National Mirror newspaper.

The paper said in its Tuesday edition that the three brothers were killed when the gunmen waylaid their car while they were returning from a visit to their parents at the Nganaram area of the city.

They had gone to drop foodstuffs for their parents in the spirit of the ongoing Ramadan fasting.

In a separate incident, two persons were shot dead around the Customs office in the Gamboru area.

The shooting forced many residents of the area to scamper to safety.

No one has claimed responsibility for the killings, but Maiduguri is the home base of the violent Islamic sect Boko Haram, which has killed over 1,200 people in gun and bomb attacks in the predominantly-Muslim north since 2009.
-0- PANA SEG 24July2012