The Islamist insurgents also burnt scores of
homes and buildings in the late Tuesday assault, according to locals,
who reported seeing corpses littering the roadside.
Boko
Haram fighters set up checkpoints in the Benisheik area and gunned down
motorists and travellers who tried to flee, according to multiple
witness accounts.
"Eighty-seven bodies
were recovered in the bush and our people are still searching for
more," Saidu Yakubu of the Environmental Protection Agency in
northeastern Borno state told journalists.
He briefed reporters who accompanied Borno's Governor Kashim Shettima to the scene of the massacre.
Details of the attack in the town which has been previously been targeted by Boko Haram first emerged Wednesday.
