Kogi Mayhem: Fresh attack on Mosque claimed 4 lives...death tolls rise to 20!

While the Deeper Life Bible Church was still counting its heavy losses to the ruthless Monday night attack on its church in Otite, Okene, Kogi State, four persons again died in an attack on the Central Mosque in the city on Tuesday.

Reports from Kogi on Tuesday indicated that the death toll in the attack on the Deeper Life Bible Church during an evening service on Monday had increased from 16 to 20.

In a panic measure to curb bloodshed in the state, Governor Idris Wada has announced a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Okete town, while the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, has ordered 24-hour surveillance in worship centres in Okene and other parts of Kogi State.

The dead victims in the Tuesday attack included two soldiers and two of the gunmen that attacked the mosque during the Tasfir prayer at 4.00pm.

The soldiers were killed in a gunfight with the gunmen suspected to be members of the violent Islamist sect, Boko Haram.

It was learnt that the attackers were dressed in white robes and drove in a Hilux Jeep to the Central Mosque close to the Okene Local Government Council secretariat while the Tasfir prayer was about to commence.

An eyewitness account state that a soldier stationed at the entrance of the mosque gunned down two of the attackers before they could proceed with their attack. But the soldier and another of his colleague were also killed in the ensued crossfire with the gunmen whose number was not ascertained.

The rest of the attackers that survived the gunfight were said to have escaped in the same Hilux Jeep before the arrival of other security agents.

The Commissioner of Police, Kogi State Command, Mr. Muhammed Katsina, confirmed the incident to journalists in Lokoja.