Nigeria’s Defence Minister, Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (retd), has said that all the Boko Haram high-profile suspects that were hitherto held in Kuje prison, which is located within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja escaped when their fighters bombed the facility on Tuesday night.
For those who do not understand the position of Abuja in the schemen of things in Nigeria, Abuja is where Nigeria’s seat of government is situated. It is where Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari the Commander-in-Chief resides, with the full complement of the entire security arms of the federal government including the army, air force, navy, customs, police, immigration, Civil Defence, and so on. Yet, the terrorists were not confronted.
The finished their mayhem, which lasted for hours and left without anybody accosting them, and no fewer than five persons were reported killed during the night attack. Although President Buhari who was on his way to Senegal dropped by Kuje Prison on his way to the airport, heads have not rolled and names have not been called out, which is typical of the present administration.
Among those killed was a civil defence personnel attached to the facility, while four inmates, said to have attempted an escape, were also killed. Addressing the media at the facility in Abuja in Abuja on Wednesday, who identified the invaders as Boko Haram insurgents said 64 inmates of the Islamist terrorist organisation could not be accounted for after the attack.
“What actually happened, they came in their numbers and released some of the inmates. We are now trying to set the kind of inmates they released. We are trying to see what we can do to see that all escapes within the prison accommodation are brought back to the prison yard.
“About 994 inmates, we have about 600 already inside now. Many people are being recaptured. The people who came to do this from the records belong to a particular group, from all indicators they are Boko haram. Presently we could not locate any of them. Currently, they are about 64 of them as inmates and we could not locate them,” he said.
Spokesman for the service, Mr. Abubakar Umar, in an updated statement, added that the suspended deputy commissioner of police, Mr. Abba Kyari, and other high-profile inmates were still in custody. It was also learnt that security operatives had begun a search and rescue mission with support from the air force to retake the fleeing inmates.
Meanwhile, an unnamed prison source told Punch that about 100 fleeing inmates had been recaptured. Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari visited the correctional centre to assess the level of damage caused to the facility. He visited the centre before leaving for Dakar, Senegal, for the International Development Association (IDA) for Africa Summit.
