Rauf Aregbesola, minister of interior, says there has been
another jailbreak attempt in the last few months.
On July 5, 2022, gunmen attacked a correctional facility in
the Kuje council area of the federal capital territory (FCT).
Over 500 prisoners — including Boko Haram suspects — were
said to have escaped.
Speaking on Thursday at a ministerial press briefing in
Abuja, Aregbesola said there have been further attempts to replicate the Kuje
jailbreak.
According to the minister, the culprits have been “sent to
their maker”.
“We are doing the best we can to ensure that it will be
difficult for anybody to attack our facilities,” Aregbesola said.
“You may not know that some had attempted and we have sent
them back to their maker. Just take it, it is no longer game as usual.
“We are equipping our
men to — on their own — defend those facilities. And those sister agencies are
equally upping their capacity to protect and defend our facilities. And we’re
improving the design of our facilities to make it almost impregnable.”
Aregbesola however did not disclose the facilities where the
jailbreak attempts were made.
Speaking on the Kuje incident, the former Osun governor said
it had been difficult to recapture “many” missing inmates but added that he was
confident they would soon be caught as their biometrics have been registered in
the system.
“As at today, there’s no single inmate of our facilities
that is not captured biomedically and that is the best we can do. We’re still
working on DNA, which is another way of identifying them,” he said.
“We have met with all
agencies, and institutions that can use the biometrics we have to trace and
arrest them. They are doing their best. The most effective agency in capturing
them is still the police force. They are doing wonderfully well.
“The technology that we expected will be effective in
capturing them is not as effective. Like I would normally tell people, they can
only run they cannot hide. If they go out of circulation for now but because
they cannot change their biometrics, whenever they come out, they will be
exposed and therefore arrested if they have not died.
“There is no international airport that you will go to today
that you will not have photographs of all these people. They are on our
website, papers carried them, they are on social media platforms.”
‘SEASON OF
JAILBREAKS’
Speaking on the spate of jailbreaks in the country, the
minister said “it is the season” — but noted that it is not peculiar to
Nigeria.
He said the high level of insecurity, among other factors,
contributed to the breakouts.
“It is the season.
Don’t say ah! I know you don’t want to hear it. Have we had what we are having
in Nigeria today before? It is the season and it’s global,” he said.
“Why are we having assassinations in America? Bad as it is,
it is horrible but in America, people get killed every second…. in California.
Within the last week in America 20 people have been killed, did you ask why? It
has nothing to do with technology, it could even be linked to climate change.
“When things are hard, people who cannot manage their own
stability resort to those types of things. You can’t say there is no terrorism
in Nigeria, we are managing it. You can’t say there is no banditry in Nigeria,
we are managing it.
“There is tension. Nigerians, just like the rest of the
world, were kept incommunicado for 90 days straight. Let’s not look at COVID-19
alone, the remaining 120 days were on and off. Don’t you think that those
things will have an impact on society?”
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