Members of the relentless terrorists group, Boko Haram has reportedly killed over 50 elderly people in Gwoza area of Borno State, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
According to the villagers, the extremist picket those too old to flee, rounded them up and executed them.
It was gathered that the killings took place this week, and it is believed that this is a new tactic that has instilled more fear in areas the sect call an Islamic caliphate.
Residents from five villages said the Islamic extremists targeted the elderly because they were too old to flee Gwoza Local Government Area, adding that they were rounded up and taken to two schools where the terrorists opened fire on them.
Muhammed Gava, a spokesman for civil defence groups in the area said: “What they are doing now is to assemble the aged people, both men and women and then they just open fire on some of them. More than 50 people had been killed at Government Day Secondary School in Gwoza.
Another villager who spoke on the condition of anonymity revealed that more elderly people were being gathered and shot at Uvaghe Central Primary School.
Meanwhile, government officials did not immediately comment on the reports, but Nigeria’s military said soldiers are patrolling “in search of terrorists” and “to verify abductions.”
It would be recalled that on Friday at Gumburi, witnesses said the extremists kidnapped at least 185 people a week ago, while in another development, a new video from the sect has shown gunmen mowing down civilians lying face down in a dorm, and a leader saying they were being killed because they are “infidels” or non-believers.
It was reported that they were so many corpses, that the gunmen had difficulty stepping to reach bodies still twitching with life. Most of which appeared to be adult men.
“We have made sure the floor of this hall is turned red with blood, and this is how it is going to be in all future attacks and arrests of infidels. From now, killing, slaughtering, destructions and bombing will be our religious duty anywhere we invade,” the group leader said in a message.
The setting of the latest video appears to be a school, a long dormitory furnished with bunk beds which the leader said was in Bama, a town 60 kilometers (40 miles) north of Gwoza.
Boko Haram which believes ‘Western education is sinful’ has always attacked students and schools frequently.
The terrorists had initially told residents of villages and towns that they would kill only enemies and wanted people to live peacefully in the area they had dubbed an Islamic caliphate, a large swath along Nigeria’s northeastern border with Cameroun that they have controlled for more than three months.
The leader in the video stated that prophet Mohammed advised that prisoners should be held, not killed, but insisted that: “We felt this is not the right time for us to keep prisoners; that is why we will continue to see that the grounds are crimsoned with the flowing blood of prisoners.”
The leader explained that some of those killed may call themselves Muslims, but were considered infidels by Boko Haram. The sect has killed thousands of people while no fewer than 1.6 million people have been driven from their homes in the five-year insurgency that is spilling across borders into Cameroun, Chad and Niger.
Gwoza village is about 130 kilometres southeast of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
It would be recalled that the sect members recently launched an attack on Damagum, Yobe State, leaving several people dead,
Meanwhile, several terrorists reportedly died after falling into an ambush by Nigerian soldiers, laid between Maiduguri and Damboa, Borno State on December 19.
