A deadly bombing in northern Nigeria and new details about kidnappings blamed on Boko Haram, has cast further doubt on the government's claim that the Islamists have agreed to a truce.
As reports emerged on Thursday that extremists seized dozens more women and girls from the remote northeast, fresh violence rocked the town of Azare in Bauchi state.
A police spokesman for the state, Mohammed Haruna, said a bomb blast at a bus station in Azare killed five people, with their bodies "burnt beyond recognition," and injured 12 others.
No-one claimed responsibility, but Bauchi has been attacked repeatedly throughout Boko Haram's brutal five-year uprising, which has left more than 10,000 people dead.
Meanwhile, reports of fresh kidnappings by the Islamists first emerged on Saturday near the town of Chibok, where more than 200 schoolgirls were seized in April in an attack that sparked outrage worldwide.
Residents of the town of Wagga told AFP on Thursday that 40 females were kidnapped by suspected Islamist gunmen who went door-to-door, specifically looking for young women and girls.
"They left 1500 naira ($A9) and some kola nuts in each home where they seized a woman, apparently as a bride price," said Lazarus Baushe, an elder of the Wagga community.
Witnesses in the nearby town of Gwarta separately reported a kidnapping at the weekend involving another 20 female victims, but details were not immediately clear.
Confirmation that the Bauchi bombing or the latest abductions were tied to Boko Haram would further undermine the government's claim that they have negotiated a ceasefire with the extremist group.
The surprise truce was announced on Friday by Nigeria's top military officer, Air Marshall Alex Badeh. A senior aide to President Goodluck Jonathan said Boko Haram had agreed to release the 219 schoolgirls held hostage since they were abducted on April 14 in Chibok.
But evidence is mounting that both pacts were hollow.
There has been no comment so far from Boko Haram's purported leader Abubakar Shekau and hopes voiced by the presidency that the girls would be released by Tuesday came to nothing.
Nigerian negotiators were reportedly set to resume talks with Boko Haram envoys in neighbouring Chad next week, but further questions will likely be asked about the identities of the purported rebel negotiators.
