How DSS Office Was Attacked In Kogi State

More details have continued to emerge in the Friday night attack on the Kogi State office of the Department of State Security Services by suspected members of the Boko Haram sect.

The attackers stormed the DSS office located along Hassan Katsina Road, Lokoja, after using a truck belonging to Obajana Cement Company to block part of the access road leading to the office and engaged the DSS personnel in a shoot out.


A source who spoke on condition of anonymity said the heavily armed men that stormed the DSS office overwhelmed the DSS officials present and released all suspects kept there after gaining entrance.

Sources said no fewer than 30 people detained at the Kogi State office, 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, killing three of the attackers, while some of them fled into the bush. A police officer was said to have also lost his life during the gun duel.

Confirming the attack, Kogi State Police Commissioner, Mr. Emmanuel Ojukwu, said He said criminal elements invaded the DSS office in Lokoja at about 9:45pm on Friday.

He said 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.

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 said 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.”