Gunmen have abducted 10 individuals following a daring, simultaneous assault on the palace of the Emir of Yashikira and the local divisional police headquarters in Baruten Local Government Area of Kwara State.
The coordinated attack, which occurred in the afternoon of Monday, left a portion of the royal palace engulfed in flames.
While the armed criminals managed to flee with their hostages into the surrounding wilderness, police operatives on duty successfully repelled the parallel assault on the police station.
Confirming the incident, the Kwara State Police Public Relations Officer, Adetoun Ejire-Adeyemi, disclosed that the desperate assault took place around 2:00p.m.
In response to the breach, the state Commissioner of Police, Ojo Adekimi, has ordered an intensive, intelligence-led tactical operation.
A joint security force comprising police officers, military personnel, forest guards, and local vigilantes has been deployed to comb the surrounding forests and suspected criminal hideouts in a relentless bid to rescue the victims and apprehend the perpetrators.
Commissioner Adekimi struck a defiant tone, assuring residents that the command would not succumb to threats or intimidation by criminal elements. “These criminals have declared war against peace-loving citizens, and we are fully prepared to hunt them down relentlessly,” Adekimi stated, promising to deploy all operational capabilities to dismantle the attackers’ networks.
Security operations, including heightened surveillance and bush-combing, have since been intensified across vulnerable communities in both Baruten and neighboring Kaiama Local Government Areas.
This latest security breach underscores a worrying spike in violent crimes across the state. It comes on the heels of another brutal attack where terrorists stormed a church during a Saturday night vigil at Ori-Oke Ajaiye, on the outskirts of Ikiran village in the Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State.
That previous assault resulted in the tragic death of three persons and the abduction of 15 worshippers, piling pressure on regional security forces to contain the growing wave of criminality.
