Gunmen have killed no fewer than 36 persons while several others were injured in a fresh attack which occurred in Ahwol Ward, Naraguta community, in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau state.

It was gathered that the gunmen stormed the community with sophisticated weapons around 10 pm on Tuesday night and killed the victims while several others who sustained injuries during the attack have been rushed to the Bingham University Teaching Hospital in Jos, the state capital.

The Paramount ruler of the Anaguta ethnic nationality in the state, Ujah Johnson Jauro confirmed the attack to The PUNCH in Jos on Wednesday

The Paramount ruler said, “Yes, it’s true. I have been informed that some gunmen attacked my people last night in Naraguta community with many casualties. But we are still investigating to know what really happened.”

The Councilor for Ahwol Ward in the community, Yusuf Ali, who also confirmed the attack, said that people were burnt alive in the affected area.

Another resident, Jeremiah Bulus, said, “corpses have been taken to the mortuary this morning and people are still making efforts to recover more corpses from several houses which the gunmen also set ablaze. The situation is really bad for the people ”

According to the Councillor, the gunmen first vandalised the iron bridge linking the community before attacking the people which made it difficult for the security agents to assess the area when they were contacted over the attacks

He said “The gunmen were just shooting in every direction when they arrived the community around 10 pm. For now, dead bodies have been recovered and we are still searching for more victims because the shooting was too much.

“When the attack was going on, the Chairman of the Local Government called the security agents to mobilize to the area but it was discovered that the gunmen destroyed the iron bridge linking the community.”

The Spokesman for the Plateau Police Command, Ubah Ogaba, could not be reached when contacted.

Also, several calls put across to the Military Information Officer of the Operation Safe Have , Major Ishaku Takwa, were not answered as of the time of filing this report.

Credit: The Punch