No fewer than 30 people detained at the Kogi State office of the
Directorate of State Service were freed on Friday night when it was
attacked by gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect.
This was as four people, including an anti-riot policeman, were reportedly killed in the attack by the invading insurgents.
The attackers were said to have immediately made for the cell of the
DSS office located along Hassan Katsina Road, Lokoja, and released all
suspects kept there after gaining entrance.
Our correspondent gathered that around 9.45pm on Friday, the gunmen with sophisticated weapons invaded the DSS office.
A
source who spoke on condition of anonymity said the heavily armed men
that stormed the DSS office appeared to have overwhelmed the DSS
officials present, prompting a Deputy Director of the agency, whose name
is yet to be ascertained, to quickly put a distress call to the police
at about 10:40pm.
It was gathered that combined patrol teams of soldiers and policemen
were later drafted to the place and they engaged the invaders in a gun
duel for over seven hours.
The source said the security operatives later overpowered the attackers and some of them (invaders) fled into the bush.
He added that at the end of the shootout, the bodies of a policeman and three of the attackers were discovered.
The source further said two of the attackers fled to Otokiti Housing
Estate and forced themselves into one of the flats occupied by a woman.
It was gathered that the woman quickly invited soldiers who responded immediately, arrested and took them away.
The Kogi State Police Commissioner, Mr. Emmanuel Ojukwu, confirmed the attack to journalists in Lokoja.
He said at about 9:45pm on Friday, criminal elements invaded the DSS office in Lokoja.
According to him, the prompt response of the police command led to
the death of three of the attackers, while at the end of the operation
the command lost a policeman.
He said he could not confirm whether or not the invaders succeeded in entering the DSS office.
Ojukwu said, “We are still investigating and we cannot say much for now until we are able to lay our hands on the suspects.
“We are working assiduously with other security agents in the state to ensure that we get to the root cause of the attack.”
Meanwhile the DSS has deployed operatives from its Abuja headquarters
to Lokoja, Kogi State to hunt down Boko Haram suspects that escaped
from its detention facility in the state.
Sources told our correspondent that the DSS was yet to have a
definite number of the escaped suspects, adding that the Kogi State
directorate was in the process of submitting the full list of the
suspects to the DSS headquarters in Abuja.
A DSS source said, “The service is yet to ascertain the exact number
of terror suspects that escaped during the attack, but the headquarters
is expecting a full briefing on the incident, including the number of
escaped suspects, number of dead or wounded personnel, number of
re-arrested suspects and a detailed explanation of how the facility was
attacked.
“A probe into the security breach has been initiated by the service
headquarters and a squad has been dispatched to the state to help in
re-arresting the fleeing insurgents; we expect recapture of some of the
suspects within 24 hours.”
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