Nigerian authorities on Tuesday banned night time use of motorcycles in a northern state after a spate of killings by bike-riding gunmen suspected of being Islamist sect members.
Motorcycles will be banned from 6:00 pm to 7:00 am in Borno, whose capital is Maiduguri, the centre of an uprising last year by the Islamist sect, said Ibrahim Abdu, state police commissioner.
The ban follows a string of recent attacks by motorcycle-riding gunmen in Nigeria’s north — mostly in Maiduguri — that have killed at least nine people, including police personnel and a retired officer.
“This is only the beginning,” said Abdu. “If this strategy doesn’t work, we will call for a total ban on motorcycles in the state.”
Three separate shootings occurred on Sunday, leaving a retired police officer dead. Another person reported wounded later died, and four others were injured, including a local chief.
Last year’s uprising by the Boko Haram sect began with attacks on police posts. It was crushed by a police and military assault, with hundreds eventually killed and the sect’s headquarters and mosque left in ruins.
Boko Haram means “Western education is sin” in local Hausa dialect.
The sect has also been known as the Nigerian Taliban and had fought for the creation of an Islamic state in Nigeria, whose 150 million population is divided roughly in half between Christians and Muslims.