Kwara Attacks: Security Agents Eliminate Bandits, As Govt Flays  Report

By Ayodele Oni

The Kwara State Government has condemned reports aimed at discouraging security agents that are currently confronting bandits unleashing terror on communities in the state.

The state government, in a statement in Ilorin, stated that reports which claimed that operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) disarmed vigilantes in Oke-Ode, a town in Ifelodun Local Government Area of the state was untrue.

Gunmen had on Sunday killed 12 and abducted an unspecified number of people, with several others injured in the deadly incident.

In a viral video that trailed the attack, a lady, obviously, distressed, was seen mourning her dead husband and his brother, while accusing the DSS of disarming the town’s vigilantes prior to the attack, a move she claimed, gave the assailants undue firepower advantage.

However, the state government in a statement described the claim as false, saying at no time did the DSS disarm vigilantes in any part of the state.

“There is no truth to the claim that DSS withdrew weapons from the forest guards at any time. The leadership of the forest guards has disputed this claim,” Rafiu Akakaye, who is Chief Press Secretary to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq, said in a statement.

The statement came on a day the DSS and troops of the Nigerian Army eliminated several terrorists on the border between Kwara and Kogi States.

According to top security sources, notable among those killed was a terrorist kingpin called Maiwada and several foot soldiers of his.

Kwara State Government regretted that security agencies in the State have “expressed strong reservations about the demoralising, albeit false, claim which was made in a viral video.

“We pray to God to console the bereaved woman— and every other one — but her claim is not true,” noted the statement, quickly adding, “this clarification does not in any way delegitimise her grief.”

Continued the state government, “Politicians do not miss opportunities to wrong-foot their opponents. Average citizens who are concerned about all of us getting out of this crisis stronger and better as a community should not join such chitchat. It is not worth it.

“News media have used pictures from thousands of kilometers away to illustrate their stories…some have said we are in a state of war. It is their own way of saying it,” the state government added.

“We will get out of this stronger and safer,” assured the government, advising, “let us remain united and calm, and refuse to be at daggers-drawn with ourselves.”