Gunmen kill Pregnant woman, 15 others at naming ceremony

Gunmen have killed a pregnant woman and 15 others at Numa village in Akwanga Local Government Area of Nasarawa State. The local government Chairman, Mr. Samuel Mashi, who disclosed this yesterday, said the incident occurred on Sunday night.

Mashi told journalists in Akwanga that the gunmen attacked the community about 10p.m. during a naming ceremony. He said: “They just started shooting sporadically on a community that was just having merriment. “Unfortunately 16 people were killed in cold blood for just no reason.”

The chairman, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said that security had been beefed up in the affected community and its environs to forestall reprisal and further breakdown of law and order. Similarly, the Chun-Mada, who is also the Chairman of the Traditional Council of Akwanga, Mr. Samson Gamu- Yare, described the attack as barbaric.

He said that apart from the 16 people killed, so many others were injured and were receiving treatment in various hospitals. Gamu-Yare called on the state and the Federal Government to urgently fish out the perpetrators of the attack.

The monarch urged people of the affected community to remain law-abiding even in the face of the unprovoked attack. The Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Criminal investigation Department (CID), Mohammed Akira, said the command had mobilised to the area to forestall further breakdown of law and order.

Gunmen had in March 2019, attacked and killed people at Merte and Nandem communities of the same local government area.