A Joint Task Force (JTF) comprising Police, State Security Service (SSS), Navy, Air-force and Army in Kogi state, recorded a major breakthrough Wednesday as an hideout of terrorists was discovered and dismantled.
Items discovered at the hideout include explosives such as grenades, improvised explosive devices, machine guns and a number of rifles.
The state Director of SSS, Mr. Mike Funbara, said the discovery was a “turning point in the security situation in the state,” adding that security operatives had been able to get to the root of crime perpetration in the state.
He added that “It is now clear that there is a terrorist group in the state but we are dismantling all their arsenals.”
Briefing journalists on the discovery, Funbara said the command was able to recover 14 locally made hand grenades, eight anti-tank improvised explosive devices (IEDs), one firing cable, three 9 volts power sources, ten AK 47 rifles, two revolver pistols, one bareta pistol and one sub machine gun.
Also discovered are, one SMG magazine, 545 live ammunition, 55 rounds of 9mm ammunition for pistols, four bondalia bags for carrying magazines, a Nissan Pathfinder with registration number Lagos LF 98 AAA and 57 empty magazines among many other items recovered from the hideout.
The secret service boss, urged the federal government to redeploy capable hands to the state in order to assist in the protection of lives and property.
“The combination of the agencies has hit the bull’s eyes. We have the details of their whereabouts and we will continue to go after them. The intelligence we are getting in the state is as clean as a whistle,” he assured.
Though details of causalities on both sides and the number of arrest made were not made public due to security reasons, the leader of the operation, Lieutenant Colonel Gabriel Olorunyomi, said the hideout was located in Okenwen, a border town between Kogi and Edo states.
The items recovered were dug out from the ground where they were buried.
Lt. Col Olorunyomi noted that the cache of arms recovered during the operation are capable of wrecking significant proportion of havoc on the state except for the timely intervention of the security agents, which he said was made possible by intelligence reports coming from the public.
He therefore urged the people to continue to collaborate with security agencies in the state by giving prompt and reliable information about criminals, in the quest to ensure that criminals are stamped out in the state.
