A lone gunman stormed the village square on Friday night as residents gathered for their annual carol and unexpectedly started shooting sporadically, felling all victims.
Eight others were wounded, sources said yesterday.
The village has been in a mourning mood since.
The spokesman for Operation Safe Haven, the military task force charged with the responsibility of keeping the peace of the area, Colonel I. K. Ekpeyong confirmed the development.
He said the bodies of the dead people had been deposited in a mortuary while the wounded persons were taken to the Kafanchan General Hospital for treatment.
Some people suspected to be “masterminds of the attack “have been arrested for interrogation,” he said.
More troops have been deployed to the area to avert a fresh attack or reprisal.
The state government has condemned the attack and asked communities in the area to stand firm against any threat to peace. It urged them to reject those who might want to reprise the events of December 2016, a reference to a similar attack by gunmen on Goska village in the same Jema’a local government area.
-The Nation
