Police Find 66 Bodies In NW Nigeria: State Governor

Police have found 66 bodies in Kaduna state, northwest Nigeria, the state governor said on the eve of elections on Friday.

"Security agencies today reported the recovery of 66 bodies that were killed in attacks by criminal elements" in eight villages in the Kajuru area, he said in a statement.

"Among the victims were 22 children and 12 women. Four wounded persons rescued by the security agencies are now receiving medical attention," he added.

"(The) government condemns the attacks and commiserates with the families of the victims."

There was no immediate comment from the police when contacted by AFP but El-Rufai, a close ally of President Muhammadu Buhari, said officers had been sent and arrests made.

He urged community, traditional and religious leaders to warn local people not to launch reprisal attacks.

"The killings are being investigated and residents are assured that indicted persons will be prosected."

No cause for the violence was given but Kaduna has long been a centre of deadly unrest, fuelled by long-standing ethnic and religious tensions.

Northwest Nigeria -- and particularly Zamfara state -- is also in the grip of spiralling attacks by criminal gangs involved in cattle rustling and kidnapping for ransom.

Kaduna state borders Zamfara. Local leaders in the Birnin Gwari region of Kaduna told AFP in January they suffered deadly attacks by armed bandits on an almost daily basis.

"We have been living in fear. Abductions have become a daily affair," said Isah Muhammad Galdima, a spokesman for the area.

The attacks are another security headache for Buhari, with Boko Haram's Islamist insurgency in the northeast and violence between farmers and herders in central states.

Kaduna and its religiously divided state capital have also been associated with election violence, particularly in the aftermath of the 2011 vote.

Hundreds of people were killed when the then-opposition candidate Buhari, a Muslim former military ruler from the north, lost to Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian.

Buhari stands for re-election on Saturday. His main challenger is Atiku Abubakar, another ethnic Fulani Hausa-speaking Muslim, from northeast Nigeria.

El-Rufai's spokesman Samuel Aruwan said Kaduna residents should "uphold peace and harmony, shun violence and allow the elections to be held in an atmosphere of calm".