Potiskum bombing: Arrested suspects found dead with bullet wounds

Troops rounded up 17 people, including an imam, from the Dogo Tebo area of Potiskum, Yobe State, as they left a mosque after morning prayers on Wednesday. Now, 16 of them, apart from the imam, have been found dead with bullet wounds, AFP reports community leaders as saying.

According to residents and hospital staff who spoke to the news agency, their bodies were later found in the morgue at the Potiskum General Hospital.

On Monday, a suicide bombing targeted at a Shitte Muslim festival in the town killed at least 15 people and injured up to 50 people.

Community leaders believed themen were picked up and killed because they were from the Kanuri ethnic group believed to form the bulk of Boko Haram’s membership. The communities are demanding a probe into the killings.

One of them said:“We demand a probe into this unjustifiable murder. We believe they were killed on suspicion of being Boko Haram members because they were Kanuris.”

Another leader stated that all those arrested were related either by blood or marriage. He added: “The government should look into this cold-blooded murder and ensure justice is done ‎because being a soldier is not a license to kill at will on mere suspicion”.