Some hoodlums said to be armed with guns have killed four persons at Gundum village, in Mangu Local Government of Plateau State.

Shedrack Gambo, a relative of the victims, said four persons died in the attack, while some sustained injuries.

“Four persons died in the attack and others were injured. The community is in shock and grieving. Please, pray for us,” he said.

Spokesman for the Military Task Force, Captain James Oya, confirmed the incident to The Nation in Jos yesterday.

“I have called the commander of the FOB and he confirmed the figure. He explained that when the troops got to the village, it was like the assailants went there for a specific person, with the village head as the target.

“According to what the troops were told, the assailants on arrival were asking for the house of the village head. When the people saw what was happening, they started running away,” he said.

He said the bandits razed the house of the village head with his family members inside before troops who were alerted rescued the victims.

Oya said: “The village head also escaped, but the assailants set his house ablaze. But for the intervention of the soldiers, the wives of the village head and his children, who were locked inside the house, would have died because the house was still on fire when the troops got there and everywhere was filled with smoke.”

He added that the troops had to break into the house and rescue the people.

Governor Caleb Mutfwang has condemned the attack.

In a condolence message, he sympathised with the affected families, decrying the barbaric and unacceptable nature of the orchestrated attack.