MINNA (AFP) – Gunmen have killed three policemen and critically injured another in two separate attacks in Niger state, where Islamists killed dozens of people on Christmas day, police said Friday.

“When we arrived… we met the lifeless bodies of the inspector and the sergeant on the floor where they were killed, while a public-spirited man helped the injured corporal to the hospital,” state police spokesman Richard Oguche told AFP of the Thursday attack in Minna, the state capital.

“This is coming after yesterday’s (Wednesday) attack at Maje (in Suleija town) where a corporal was also shot dead in a similar manner,” he said.

Oguche could not say which group was behind the attacks, but the Islamist Boko Haram sect has been blamed for scores of attacks that have shaken Nigeria, including the Christmas Day bombing of a church in the same state that killed at least 44 people.