Following last Friday’s attack on the office of the Department of State Services, DSS, in Kogi State by gunmen believed to be terrorists, security has beefed up around the Zone 8 Area of Lokoja.
The DSS, Zone 8 of the Nigerian Police and the State House of Assembly are all located in the area.
Officers and men from the Maigumeri Barracks, Lokoja, have been drafted to ensure adequate security, while mobile policemen have also been drafted to cordon off the area.
The combined team, comprising officers and men from the Army, Navy, Police and DSS, was noticed patrolling the road and adjoining roads.
Sources said the security arrangement was to forestall a repeat attack by the suspected insurgents.
The sensitivity of the attack may have forced the security apparatus in the state to wrap the issues surrounding the attack in official secrecy.
The DSS is not giving information on the attack as they claimed to have been gagged from speaking to the press by the Directorate headquarters in Abuja.
However, a highly placed source in security circles in the state told Vanguard on condition of anonymity that the silence on the attack was in the best interest of the nation.
He said initial investigations have revealed that the attackers were insurgents who wanted to rescue some of their members held in DSS facilities in Lokoja.
However, there are conflicting reports on the number of casualties recorded during the dastardly attack.
While the Kogi State Police Command claimed only one security agent was lost to the attack, it is unclear whether any DSS operative died during the gun battle that raged for more than two hours.
The source said: “I can tell you categorically that insurgents were behind the attack. They are already running short of men as a result of the onslaught against them in the North-East.
“They actually came to free their men who were in DSS cells in Kogi. I learned they actually freed some men.”
Kogi has continued to be in the spotlight of terror attacks following attacks on the Kotonkarfe Prisons and the Deeper Life Bible Church in Okene, within the past two years.
Normalcy is, however, gradually returning to the Confluence City in the aftermath of the attack, but residents are still apprehensive.
The DSS, Zone 8 of the Nigerian Police and the State House of Assembly are all located in the area.
Officers and men from the Maigumeri Barracks, Lokoja, have been drafted to ensure adequate security, while mobile policemen have also been drafted to cordon off the area.
The combined team, comprising officers and men from the Army, Navy, Police and DSS, was noticed patrolling the road and adjoining roads.
Sources said the security arrangement was to forestall a repeat attack by the suspected insurgents.
The sensitivity of the attack may have forced the security apparatus in the state to wrap the issues surrounding the attack in official secrecy.
The DSS is not giving information on the attack as they claimed to have been gagged from speaking to the press by the Directorate headquarters in Abuja.
However, a highly placed source in security circles in the state told Vanguard on condition of anonymity that the silence on the attack was in the best interest of the nation.
He said initial investigations have revealed that the attackers were insurgents who wanted to rescue some of their members held in DSS facilities in Lokoja.
However, there are conflicting reports on the number of casualties recorded during the dastardly attack.
While the Kogi State Police Command claimed only one security agent was lost to the attack, it is unclear whether any DSS operative died during the gun battle that raged for more than two hours.
The source said: “I can tell you categorically that insurgents were behind the attack. They are already running short of men as a result of the onslaught against them in the North-East.
“They actually came to free their men who were in DSS cells in Kogi. I learned they actually freed some men.”
Kogi has continued to be in the spotlight of terror attacks following attacks on the Kotonkarfe Prisons and the Deeper Life Bible Church in Okene, within the past two years.
Normalcy is, however, gradually returning to the Confluence City in the aftermath of the attack, but residents are still apprehensive.
