Armed insurgents believed to be Boko Haram militants have massacred 75 people in two separate villages in Kwara State north-central Nigeria on Tuesday, the governor confirmed on social media.
Writing on X, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq said those killed were Muslims who apparently refused to subscribe to a ”strange religious doctrine” preached by the attackers.
Reports suggest that the raiders had sent a notice to the villages about spreading their doctrine.
Other sources say over 150 people may have been killed when the attackers raided the villages of Woro and Nuku where they were met with some local resistance by vigilantes.
President Bola Tinubu has since directed the military hierachy to deploy troops to the troubled state which in recent months has been inflitrated by Boko Haram insurgents coinciding with a series of abductions and disappearances of residents.
Witnesses quoted by Amnesty International say most of the victims were either shot at point blank range or burnt alive and that the death toll may surpass 170 as the extent of the massacre unravels.
The heghtened insecurity comes as the United State deploy troops to Nigeria to help stem the Boko Haram insurgency which has rocked the country since 2009.
This week attacks were reported in Doma village in Katsina State in which at least 21 people were killed.
The killings and kidnapings have been blamed on a Boko Haram faction attempting to spread a puritanical brand of Islam.
Boko Haram have not claimed responsibility so far.
WN/as/APA