20120115
AFP
Gunmen have attacked two pubs in northeastern Nigeria, killing four people amid a wave of such violence blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram, residents and police said Saturday.

The attacks occurred in two neighbouring states on Friday night and involved gunmen riding on motorcycles storming in on the drinking spots.

"Unknown gunmen attacked a beer parlour at BCJ (a district) and killed two persons," Gombe state police spokesman Ahmed Mohammed said on the phone.

Umar Dukku, a resident in the area said two gunmen stormed into the bar and fired indiscriminately. One person was wounded in the attack.

"They just fired into the beer parlour and zoomed off on the motorcycle they parked outside," Dukku said.

In nearby Adamawa state two gunmen arrived on a motorbike and opened fire on an open-air pub in the Dandu area in the state capital Yola late Friday, also wounding a policeman while fleeing.

"We took two dead bodies of the victims to the hospital last night," local community leader Tijjani Tukur said. "The gunmen arrived in the area and opened fire on people drinking at the open air tavern."

Adamawa state police spokeswoman Altine Daniel confirmed the attack but said only a policeman was injured.

"There was an attack on an outdoor beer joint by some gunmen last night in which a policeman was shot in the leg and is being treated in hospital," Daniel said.

Adamawa has been hit by a series of such attacks in recent days, with much of the violence blamed on the radical Islamist Boko Haram.

However, the state holds governorship elections on January 2l, with campaign periods often provoking violence in Nigeria.

Yola was also targeted last week when gunmen opened fire on worshippers at a church, killing at least eight people. On Wednesday, gunmen attacked a police station in the city, leaving one officer dead.

Also last week, gunmen opened fire on Christian Igbos at a house in the town of Mubi in Adamawa as they mourned the death of a friend killed in a shooting the night before, leaving 17 dead.

Adamawa was also hit by an attack late Thursday on a Muslim village by a suspected Christian mob from a nearby community which left two dead and several homes and mosques burnt.

A curfew has been declared in Yola and other trouble spots.

Spiralling violence in Nigeria, most of it blamed on Boko Haram, has sparked fears of a wider conflict in a country roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south.