No fewer than seven persons, including children, have been reported killed by unknown gunmen in Dong village in Jos South Local Government Area of Plateau State.
According to the police, the incident happened Sunday evening.
“On Sunday 23/05/2021 at about 2000hrs, the Command received a distress call that yet to be identified gunmen came out suddenly from a nearby bush, invaded Dong Village, Jos South LGA and killed seven persons,” the spokesperson of the police in the state, Gabriel Ubah, said.
He added that a combined team of police officers, STF and Vigilante operatives led by the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Department of Operation, was deployed to the scene but the hoodlums had already fled back into the bush before the arrival of the team.
According to Mr Ubah, while an investigation is ongoing, operatives were making efforts to arrest the fleeing suspects.
Meanwhile, security has been beefed up in that area to prevent escalation of violence, he said.
However, the Management Committee Chairman of Jos North Local Government, Shehu Usman, has condemned the killing.
In a statement issued on Monday, Mr Usman described the incident as unacceptable and a setback on the peace process in Plateau State.
He, however, called on residents of the area not to take laws into their hands as security agencies are doing everything possible to bring the perpetrators of the dastardly act to book.
It should be noted that before this latest attack, yet-to-be-identified gunmen had launched several attacks, killing innocent people in many communities in the state.