Unknown gunmen have killed at least 20 people outside a mosque in Kaduna, north central Nigeria.
Residents of Dogo Dawa said the attackers stormed the village, shooting and stabbing anyone in sight.
Most of those targeted were worshippers leaving a mosque.
The men , who are to be identified, are suspected to be armed robbers. Although no group has claimed responsibilities for the attack, it mirrors the style of the dreaded Islamist sect, Boko Haram.
After attacking people leaving the Mosque, the raiders moved to the house of a community chief and killed him too.
State Commissioner for Information, Saidu Adamu, said “a gang of robbers who have been terrorizing the area are likely to have carried out the attack”.
Reports say the gang had tried to attack the village recently, but had been repelled by a vigilante group. The armed bandits promised to return as some of their men were felled by the local vigilante group of the community.
A traditional ruler and councillor of Birnin Gwari Local Government Area, Abdullahi Mohammed, confirmed the bandit’s threat to revenge the killing of their colleagues by the vigilante group.
“We are suspecting a reprisal attack by gangs of armed robbers who lost some of their members after a recent exchange of fire with the villagers and the vigilantes,” he said.
“The village had been terrorized by an armed group operating from camps in the forest. These armed men mostly attack villages and motorists along the busy Kaduna to Lagos highway.”
Community leaders said they had informed the police that they had been warned, in writing, of a revenge attack – but that police had done nothing.