Abuja, Feb 25 (IANS): At least 26 people were killed in two bomb attacks at bus stations in Nigeria Tuesday, according to media reports.

At least 14 people were killed in the first attack at a crowded bus station in the northeastern town of Potiskum, while 12 people died in an attack in Kano in northwestern Nigeria, barely five hours after the first attack, Xinhua reported.

Many people were reported to be injured in both the attacks.

In the Potiskum attack, a suicide bomber came disguised as a passenger and got on to a bus, almost full with passengers, that was travelling to Kano state in the northwest, according to witnesses and security personnel.

"The suicide bomber had just alighted from a tricycle and joined the Kano-bound bus before detonating the explosive device," a security source told Xinhua.

In the last three months, attacks by Islamist militant group Boko Haram have intensified in Potiskum, the largest city in the northern Yobe state. At least 55 people have been killed in attacks in the town since November 2014.

Tuesday's attack occurred two days after five people were killed by a female suicide bomber who Sunday attacked a crowded market in Potiskum.

In Kano, two male suicide bombers alighted from a vehicle at the Kano line bus station, before detonating themselves, a police spokesman told BBC.

Kano is about 360 km from Potiskum, the main commercial hub in Yobe state.

Boko Haram has repeatedly targeted both places, despite a state of emergency being in force in Yobe.

Boko Haram now controls vast swathes of northeast Nigeria and has displaced more than three million people.

The group has been a major security threat in Nigeria, Africa's most populous state, since 2009 and seeks to enshrine the Islamic Sharia law in the Nigerian constitution.

The militant group, whose name translated from the local dialect means "non-Islamic education is a sin", wants to create an Islamic state in the mainly Muslim northern part of Nigeria.

The mounting threat of Islamist insurgency has already led to the postponement of February's presidential elections, with voting now due to take place March 28.

The delay is designed to give the Nigerian military time to re-establish its presence in the northeast.

The Boko Haram is under increased pressure from the Nigerian troops as well as those of Chad, Niger, and Cameroon.