Modu Fannami Gubio and at least four other people, including a 10-year-old child, were killed by men on motorbikes after Friday prayers in Maiduguri city.
Mr Gubio was the candidate for the opposition All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP) in April's elections.
A BBC reporter says there are deep divisions within the ANPP over his selection to run for governor.
Similar ride-by attacks have been blamed on the Boko Haram sect, who have been targeting police and politicians.
But the BBC's Bilkisu Babangida in Maiduguri say politicians and the police believe this killing was politically motivated.
Our reporter says the attack happened as Mr Gubio left his father's home after Friday prayers.
He was talking to his supporters when two motorcyles, each with a driver and gunman, approached and shot into the crowd.
Five people, including Mr Gubio, were killed instantly and two other people are being treated in hospital, our correspondent says.
"Obviously it's a political assassination," Borno's police chief Mohammed Jinjiri Abubakar told AFP news agency.
People hid inside their homes and shops shut as police cordoned off large neighbourhoods searching for the killers of Mr Gubio, AP reports.
Nigeria's recent elections have been tarnished by fraud and violence.
Maiduguri has also experienced a string of assassinations in recent months blamed on the Boko Haram sect, which is known locally as the Taliban and wants to see Islamic law imposed across Nigeria.
The sect is opposed to Western education and accuses Nigeria's government of being corrupted by Western ideas.
Hundreds of people suspected of being Boko Haram members escaped from prison last September after gunmen attacked the jail where they were being held in the city.
Clashes in Maiduguri between Boko Haram and the police in July 2009 left hundreds of mainly sect members dead.
The violence began after the sect members attacked a police station in Maiduguri in 2009 and clashes spread to neighbouring areas.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12310536
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