Gunmen Storm SSS Office

• Policeman, Three Suspects Dead
• Villagers Killed In Fresh B’Haram Attack

UNIDENTIFIED gunmen, yesterday, launched a deadly attack on the office of the State Security Service (SSS) in Lokoja.

Three members of the gang, however, lost their lives to the superior firepower of security personnel. One police officer was also killed in the shootout.

The assailants, after gaining entrance into the office, located along Hassan Katsina Road, Lokoja, immediately went to a cell within the premises and reportedly set some inmates free.

A Deputy Director of the agency was said to have put a distress call to the police at about 10.40pm, who immediately mobilised patrol teams to the scene to repel the attack.

The police team was later bolstered by men of the Nigerian Army who engaged the armed men in an exchange of gunfire said to have lasted hours.

Policemen at the barracks along Zone 8 moved their families away to forestall civilian casualties.

An eyewitness told our correspondent that two of the gang members fled through the Meme River and entered a compound where they deceived a woman into believing they were policemen running from an attack.

The woman was, however, said to have shut the door on them and alerted neighbours who, in turn, notified the army. The men were promptly disarmed.

The State Police Commissioner, Emmanuel Ojukwu, confirmed the incident but added he could not say whether the gang was Boko Haram members, even as he denied the release of inmates held by the SSS.

He said three suspects were killed during the attack. According to him, the hoodlums had wanted to gain entry into the office at about 9.45pm but were rebuffed by a combined team of the DSS, the army and the police.

Ojukwu, while reiterating the resolve of police to fish out other suspects on the run, solicited useful information from members of the public.

Meanwhile, suspected Boko Haram gunmen on Friday attacked three communities of Sabon Gari, Kafin Hausa and Bakin Dutse in Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa, killing an unspecified number of people and setting ablaze over 65 houses and shops, a police source disclosed in Maiduguri yesterday.

The villagers, according to the source, were returning from their farms when they were attacked along the 75-kilometre Madagali-Michika-Mubi road.

Madagali is the council headquarters of Gulak, a town bordering Borno State, which has witnessed series of deadly attacks by Boko Haram insurgents.

A police officer, who was not authorized to comment on the incident, said: “Our family house was one of the places destroyed by the terrorists. When some people alerted security operatives stationed in Gulak and Madagali that the villages were under attack, there was no response until the insurgents had destroyed the communities. My distressed people called me about the deadly attacks that lasted three days beginning Wednesday.”

He added that Madagali is now deserted, as survivors have fled to the bush while many houses were still smouldering.