Gunmen shot and killed Mustapha Kalli, a 25-year-old newly wed, on Sunday at his residence in the restive northeast Borno state.

Reports said the assailants had attacked Kalli at his Lawan Bukar home in Maidiguri, while the couple slept on Sunday night.

A neighbour, Malam Modu Malla, told the Vanguard that the killers “actually scaled over the fence of the house before killing him in front of his wife”.

Malla said noise coming from his late neighbour’s home woke him late at night. “We heard noise coming from the house but nobody could come out because of the curfew. “It was later in the morning that we discovered that Kalli had been murdered by unknown persons,” he said.

The killers were able to get away from the scene of the crime successfully, Malla said. It is unclear why the young man was targeted, but more assassinations like this are becoming the norm in Maiduguri, heartland of the Boko Haram sect.

The neighbour said Kalli’s murder follows on the heels of a similar attack on Friday night when gunmen killed two young men in their residences as well, scaling over the fence to get to them.

Borno State police spokesman, Gideon Jibrin, confirmed the killings and said the police was already investigating the murders.