Kiforo was shot on Monday February 13, 2012 while on his way into the government house by security men who mistook him for a Boko Haram sect member but his family said he was killed in error. Kiforo was reported to have been shot in the leg and in the abdomen when he failed to stop for routine security checks at the gate of the Government House. He died in the early hours of Sunday, February 19, 2012 at the 44 Army Reference Hospital Kaduna, where he had been receiving treatment.
While several sympathisers trooped to the village to mourn, the governor was physically absent at the burial. Yakowa’s Senior Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Rueben Buhari did not respond to a text message, but one of the members of the family said the governor was represented by a senior official. Other people who attended the burial included retired Gen. Zamani Lekwot, Commissioner of Information Saidu Adamu and others.