By Rafiu Ajakaye

LAGOS

Four people were reportedly killed on Sunday in a bomb blast in Nigeria's northeastern Potiskum town close to the residence of a ruling party candidate for the Feb. 14 general elections.

"Four people died this afternoon when a bomb blast planted in front of the candidate's house exploded," Umaru Aliru, a local resident, told The Anadolu Agency.

He said several others were also injured.

Mustapha Potiskum, a local Islamic cleric, confirmed the blast.

"The blast occurred today and casualties occurred," He told AA. "I don't know the exact number of dead now."

Potiskum, a commercial town in Nigeria's northeastern Yobe State, was repeatedly attacked last year, mostly by suicide bombers.

A suspected suicide bombing rocked a car park in Potiskum on Jan. 18, killing at least five people.

Two police officers were killed the week before after a suspected suicide bomber was arrested by the police.

The police attack came almost a week after two female bombers killed seven people in twin explosions.

A suicide bomber, who disguised as a student, ran into an early morning assembly in a Potiskum school and detonated the explosive devices, killing at least 40 students in late 2014.

The attack came barely a month after another bomber blew himself and about 45 members of a Shiite group up during a peaceful procession.

For the last five years, Nigeria has battled a fierce Boko Haram insurgency that has ravaged the country's volatile northeast and claimed thousands of lives.

The year 2014 proved to be the insurgency's bloodiest year yet, with increasingly frequent attacks, higher death tolls and a deluge of displaced persons.

A seemingly emboldened Boko Haram recently stepped up its militant activity, seizing several areas of Nigeria's Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, where it has since declared a self-styled "Islamic caliphate."