Attacks by armed men on Nigerian prisons are calculated to ridicule the government, the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has said.
He was reacting to the latest of such attack on the Abolongo Custodial Centre of the Nigeria Correctional Service, Oyo State, when he visited the place on Sunday morning.
Armed men attacked the facility on Friday night, blowing the entrancing up with dynamites, setting hundreds of inmates free.
Reading from a prepared speech during the visit, the minister said the prison attacks in the country had worsened since the #EndSARS protest in the country in October last year.
“External attacks on custodial facilities were a rarity hitherto. What was common, and for which our system had been well primed, was an internal breach. But beginning with the spontaneous #EndSARS protests of last year which dovetailed into massive riots, there have been consistent attacks on our facilities in Owerri, Benin, Kabba, and now Oyo,” he said.
“This is not just some random happenings. These are premeditated, planned, and coordinated attacks meant to make Nigeria unsafe and ridicule the government.
“I’m assuring Nigerians that the Federal Government will pursue not just those who attacked our facility, but those who have escaped lawful custody.
“The attack was unconscionable, I commend officers of the Nigeria Correctional Service and other members of sister security agencies who provided perimeter security for our facility for fighting gallantly and holding the fort before the attackers were able to gain access to the awaiting trial section of the facility, however, those who escaped are already being pursued. Some have been rearrested, many more will still be captured,” the Minister stated.
The correctional centre was established in 2007 to hold 160 inmates, but at the time of the attack on Friday, it was said to be holding 907 inmates. Many of those who escaped during the attack had been re-captured, Aregbesola said.
“As at the last count, 446 of the escapees have been recaptured leaving 392 still at large. We want to assure Nigerians that the service has an updated database of the escapees which includes their biometrics. We are sharing the database with all security agencies in the country including Interpol, so those who escape our recapture efforts can be nabbed.
“To those on the run, be assured you have nowhere to hide. You can run, but you can’t hide. We’ll fish you out! We are publishing details of those we escaped in the mass media so the public can assist in that effort,” the Minister reiterated.
He said only 69 of the inmates did not escape from the facility.
