President Muhammadu Buhari has decried “the senseless loss of lives” in Borno and Katsina States.
A statement by spokesman Garba Shehu said the President holds the victims in his thoughts and his prayers.
Buhari warned that killings across the country were part of the plot to cause division and hate among the populace.
The Nigerian leader, however, assured that the perpetrators would be brought to justice.
The presidency said terrorists and bandits have been reduced to scavenging from artisanal miners and farmers for survival.
The government appealed to citizens to “be at our strongest in times like this.”
“Nigerians must come together, in proud defiance of those who would seek through terror and violence to divide us along religious, political or ethnic lines”, Shehu noted.
The statement urged the people to face “cowards already fading in strength, number and willpower as one”.