Four youths have been killed in Plateau State following an attack by gunmen in Bokkos Local Government Areas of the state on Friday night.

It was learnt that the victims were working at a mining site in the Batura community when the gunmen attacked them around 9 pm, killing four persons on the spot.

The President of the Butura Youth Movement, Sabastine Magit, confirmed the killings in a statement on Saturday.

Magit said the gunmen also injured five other persons during the attack before they fled the area.

The youth leader gave the names of those killed as Bwefuk Musa, 21; Klingshak Dickson, 21; Promise Joshua, 20, and Nyam Abaka, 20.

The statement read, “In yet another unprovoked assault on members of the Butura community, armed terrorists, speaking the Fulani dialect, opened fire on innocent youths working at a mining site near the villages of Kuba and Maikatako in the Butura district of Bokkos Local Government Area in Plateau State on October 10.

“The attack was carried out at approximately 9pm without any provocation, leading to the death of four innocent people and the injury of five others.

“This attack occurred just four days after a tragic incident in the village of Wumat, where five members of a family, including a pregnant mother, lost their lives.

“Eyewitnesses report that the assailants executed a lightning-fast operation on October 10, fleeing the scene before military personnel stationed at a nearby checkpoint could respond. Tragically, four individuals were killed instantly, and five others sustained injuries. The deceased are: Bwefuk Musa, 21 years; Klingshak Dickson, 21 years; Promise Joshua, 20 years and Nyam Abaka, 20 years.”

The statement noted that the killing of the four youths was the latest in a series of unprovoked attacks on their community, which has seen over 20 of their members killed in the last month alone, all attributed to identified Fulani assailants.

Contacted, the spokesman for the Plateau State Command, Alabo Alfred, and the spokesman for the Military Taskforce in charge of maintaining peace in the state, Major Samson Zhakom, as well as the state Commissioner for Information, Musa Ashoms were not readily available to comment on the incident as several calls put across to their phone lines rang out.(Text, excluding headline: Saturday)