Security was beefed up around the Presidential Villa and other parts of Abuja on Sunday morning as heavy shootings were recorded at the headquarters of the State Security Service.
The SSS headquarters, known as Yellow House, is located behind the Villa.
The access gate to the Villa through the Fire Service office in Asokoro was quickly shut while more heavily armed soldiers were seen at the gate leading to the nation’s seat of power through the Federal Secretariat.
Military helicopters were also seen hovering over the area.
One of our correspondents who attempted to access the SSS headquarters area through the Aso Drive was turned back alongside other motorists in front of the Millennium Park by armed SSS operatives.
The trouble started when one of the suspects in the SSS custody, believed to be a Boko Haram member, overpowered an operative who was in his cell to deliver food to him.
The suspect was said to have shot the operative with a rifle and went ahead to release his co-suspects.
The source said, “An operative went to give food to a suspect this (Sunday) morning. The suspect was not properly chained, so he pushed down the operative and quickly dispossessed him of his rifle and shot him.
“He quickly released his co-inmates who started escaping with some scaling the fence.”
The incident led to a gun battle between the suspects and the SSS operatives.
It was learnt that in the process, 21 suspects believed to be Boko Haram members, were killed while about 20 were re-arrested.
Two rifles were recovered from them while two SSS operatives were also said to have been critically injured.
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