Gunmen have shot and critically wounded two aides to a governor in northern Nigeria, officials said Monday, with violence in the region already building ahead of January elections.
A security aide and a political assistant to Bauchi state governor Isa Yuguda were on Saturday shot by gunmen at separate locations, Abdulmumini Kundak, political adviser to Yuguda, told AFP.
State police commissioner Danlami Yar’Adua confirmed the shootings, but said they were criminal acts and not politically motivated. He did not say if anything was stolen from the victims.
“The governor’s security aide … was shot in the stomach by a group of gunmen in Bauchi while walking towards his car after stopping to buy some fruits not far from the governor’s house,” Kundak said by phone from the state capital of the same name, Bauchi.
“The political assistant to the governor … was shot on his way to Maiduguri when his car was stopped by another group of gunmen.”
Both men were in critical condition, he said.
Kundak also said the attacks were not politically motivated. However, the governor’s spokesman disagreed and said the shootings were linked to politics.
“The attacks are aimed to get at the governor,” Sanusi Mohammed said.
The shootings were the latest in a string of such incidents in the state, part of Nigeria’s mainly Muslim north, since the beginning of August.
State politicians hold wide-ranging control over how money is spent, making such offices highly coveted in Nigeria.
Observers have warned of an upsurge in violence ahead of January elections. A prominent supporter of President Goodluck Jonathan was kidnapped on Friday in the capital Abuja before being freed the following day.