No fewer than 30 persons were killed this morning when Boko Haram insurgents attempted to seize the national headquarters of the Department of State Security, otherwise known as State Security Service (SSS).
Latest report on the incident said that a large number of the casualties are believed to be members of Boko Haram. No fewer than 100 members of the Boko Haram sect are detained in the SSS facility.
Report had it that attempt to seize control of the SSS headquarters led to a heavy gun battle that began at about 8am and didn’t end until about 11.30am.
The SSS headquarters is less than 100 metres from the Aso Presidential Villa, the offices and residences of President Goodluck Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo, none of whom was in the Villa at the time of the attack.
Earlier report today had attributed the gunfire that shoot Presidential Villa to attempt jail break by members of the sect.
The vicinity of the Villa has since been barricaded as guns boomed with Armoured Personnel Carriers.
The DSS spokesperson Marilyn Ogar had said earlier that the gunfire occurred from an attempt by some detained Boko Haram suspects to break jail.
“What happened was that the suspects’ handlers went to feed the detainees here but suddenly they attacked him with their handcuffs, disarmed him and started shooting.
“The military was quickly called in before they could do any harm and that is responsible for the shootings you heard.
“It was an attempted jailbreak but it has been brought under control.”
Ogar’s full statement reads thus.
At 0715 hours, the Service suspect handler went to the detention facility within the Headquarters to feed the suspects. One of the suspects attempted to disarm him by hitting him at the back of his head with his handcuff. His attempt to escape drew the attention of other guards at the facility who fired some shots to warn and deter others.
2.The gun shots attracted the attention of the military with whom we have an understanding of mutual assistance in the event of any threat. The Army immediately deployed a team to reinforce our perimeter guards to forestall any external collaborators. The situation has since been brought under control.
3.Further details will be communicated.
Marilyn OGAR, msi
Deputy Director, Public Relations
Department of State Services
30th March, 2014

No fewer than seven fierce-looking policemen from the Abia state CID, allegedly working as errand boys for Abia state governor, Theodor Orji, yesterday, stormed the Surulere, Lagos residence of Mr. Ebere Wabara, Associate Editor of The Sun newspaper and Special Assistant on Media to Dr. Uzor Orji Kalu, whisking him away to Umuahia in what has been described as ghestapo like style.
The policemen, dangling their identity cards before the editor and members of his family, marched him from his residence in the van they came in, drove to Sholoki Police Station in Aguda, Surulere, and later to Oyingbo police station, also in Lagos before they disappeared with the editor into thin air.
The incident occured at about 6.30a.m in the presence of Wabara’s wife and underaged children.
The policemen told the editor before taking him away that some unnamed persons had written a petition against him in Abia State and that he should follow them to Umuahia, Abia state, where he would be charged with sedition.
Narrating the drama that played out before the editor was whisked away, his wife, Mrs. Adanna Wabara, a mother of two kids aged eight and six years, respectively, said that between 6.30 and 7.00a.m, her husband had gone downstairs to take something from his car.
“Shortly after, I heard him shouting and I ran downstairs.  I saw between seven and eight men, who said they were policemen.  They said he needed to follow them to Umuahia, that there was a petition against him for sedition.
“They took us back into the house, one of them brought out an I.D Card, showing that he was a policeman.  They requested to search our bedroom.  They did, and collected my husband’s laptop and telephone.
“I followed as they took him to Sholoki Police Station, but later, I had to take the children to school.  By the time I returned, they had moved him away.  His phones could not be reached, and he had not eaten.  Now, we are deeply traumatized, the entire family.”
In a statement, management of The Sun Publishing Limited said it described the abduction of Mr. Wabara which it said obviously came on the orders of the Abia State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Adamu Ibrahim, and under the further instruction of the state governor, Chief T. A. Orji, as a throwback to the dark days of military dictatorship, when might was right, and the strong trampled on the weak.
The statement signed by the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief, Mr. Femi Adesina said: “it is unconscionable, repressive and flies in the face of all that is decent and civil.  It has all the trappings of autocracy, rather then democracy.”
The Sun newspaper management insisted that if Mr. Wabara had infringed any law, “we would have expected the police to invite him to answer questions, and then charge him to court.  The approach that has been adopted is Ghestapo-like, and unbecoming of those who instigated it.
“Those entrusted with the upholding of the law are not expected to trample on others.  This is what the policemen from Abia State have done, and it runs contrary to the code of conduct for policemen as espoused by the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Dikko Abubakar.”
The Sun said that when it contacted the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Frank Mba, he made quality efforts to resolve the matter, urging that Mr. Wabara’s statement be taken in Lagos, and that he be given the opportunity to thereafter report in Umuahia, but that the policemen who abducted him appeared to have another design to keep him in detention over the weekend, saying: “it is simply despicable.”