No fewer than 500 gunmen attacks Shonong village in Riyom Local Government Area of Plateau State and burnt about 250 houses in the community on Thursday.

The attack, which took place at about 9.00pm, took residents unawares as they were preparing to go to bed.

A member of the community, Isaac Kahwun, said the gunmen came as usual and started shooting sporadically to announce their presence.

Kahwun said, “We sent a distress call to the special task force in charge of the village and the security agent asked us to escape to safer places claiming that they did not have the power to confront the gunmen in case they came back in the night.

“As a result of this, all the villagers left their houses and took refuge in neighbouring villages. In the middle of the night, the gunmen returned and set all the houses ablaze.

“Some house where relief materials were kept for onward distribution to victims of the earlier attacks were also looted by the attackers while they set the remaining ones ablaze.

“Over 1,000 residents who fled their homes are now sleeping in primary schools in neighbouring villages.”

The Chairman, Riyom Local Government Area, Mrs. Josephine Piyo, who had wanted to visit the village to assess the extent of the damage, was turned back by the task force.

She was told by the task force of the risk of paying such a visit, saying they could not guarantee her safety in the affected village.

The angry council chairman, however, expressed her displeasure over what she described as persistent attacks on the local government by gunmen.

She said, “In the past two months, over 10 villages in my local government have been attacked and many people killed, yet security personnel are here watching without doing anything to defend the people or arrest the gunmen.

It will be recalled that Shonong village was attacked early last year during which 36 residents, especially women and children were killed by some gunmen.

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Shonong Attacked again: Over 250 houses burnt