Gunmen Kill Borno State Commissioner For Justice

Gunmen have killed the justice commissioner for Borno state, the hotbed of an Islamist insurgency, and an ex-prisons chief in another area, government and police sources said Tuesday.

“We received the report of the death of the commissioner of justice, Zannah Malam Gana,” a government official said on condition of anonymity of the attack in the town of Bama in northeastern Nigeria late Monday.

“He was shot dead by some gunmen in his house around 8:45 pm last night.”

A police source said a former national prisons chief was also shot dead in Bauchi state in Nigeria’s north.

“The former comptroller-general of prisons is dead,” the senior police officer said. “He died from the wounds he sustained in the attack last night.”

While it was not immediately clear who was behind the killings, they occurred after security forces on Monday shot dead two suspected high-ranking members of Islamist extremist group Boko Haram.

Boko Haram is blamed for more than 1,400 deaths in northern and central Nigeria as part of its insurgency.