• How gunmen attack Abuja’s Prison
• Free criminals
• Loot Treasury

Nigerians were utterly shocked when they woke up Wednesday (5 July) morning to the devastating news of the brigandage attack on the Medium Security Custodian Centre, located in Kuje area of the Abuja Metropolis, Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), Abuja. This attack is the sixteenth of such in five years.

Many have, mostly watched series of action movies by the duo of James Bond and Slyvester Stallion action. They also watched the American drama series, Prison Break. They are no strangers to various horror action  movies on video screens. But none of such could compared to what residents of Kuje area of the FCT, witnessed last Teusday (4 July) night.

Residents told focusmagazineonline.com that a band of heavily armed terrorists, numbering over 300, had launched a ferocious attack on Kuje Medium Security Correctional Center Tuesday night, deploying bombs, Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) and General-Purpose Machine Guns (GPMG). No less than seven-hundred hardened criminals, mainly Boko Haram commanders and fighters, bandits, condemned kidnapers, and other sundry inmates detained at the facility were freed amidst intermittent shouts of “Allah Akbar. Allah Akbar” by the firef-up armed attackers

In an operation that lasted almost three hours, the Custodian Centre, where high profiled convicts and those awaiting trials are kept, was under a commando-style attack, a type yet unseen in the annals of the country before. The prison is said to be a home to some nine-hundred and ninety-four (994) inmates, all high profiles former Governors, other political office holders, ex-government officials, senior police officers, convicted commanders of the terrorist groups, Boko Haram, bandits, and kidnappers.

The dreaded Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) operating in some parts of the North Eastern part of the country had calimed responsibility for the dastardly terror act. The irredentist Islamic terror group also claimed responsibility for the attacks on the advanced convoy of the President and the March 28, train attack along Abuja-Kabuna route.

The attack on the Correctional Centre left a huge smoke of controversy on its trail. The left the scene around 12:30 hours, and 13:00, a head counts of the remaining inmates were carried out. By day break, when the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior visited, the Prison Officials claimed that huge cash belonging to the inmates were missing after the attackers left. The sums being claimed were 82 million naira and 36 thousand US dollars.

It will be recalled that the attackers had earlier tested the response-readiness and alertness of the security apparatus of the nation earlier on Monday (July 3).  Not a few people died, while two others sustained minor injuries, when bandits attacked the advance team of security guards, protocol and media officers, ahead of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Sallah trip to his hometown in Daura.

The bandits had attacked the convoy of the advance team of the President on their way to Daura, his country home in Kastina State, North West, Nigeria. The attack was, however, successfully repelled. Perhaps, this was a decoy to distract the security attention from their main target: the Medium Security Custodian Home in Kuje, Abuja, FCT where hordes of their members were been kept, especially the suspects in March 28, 2022 attack on a Abuja-Kaduna bound train where some over 150 high profile people were kidnapped. The people are still with their captors till date. Most of North West States have been under severe and incessant bandits attacks for the past 6 years.

The attack on the President’s Security and Media advanced convoy was a preamble to the main attack. The euphoria of the successful repellant of the attack had hardly died down when the terrorists struck in Abuja.

By by late evening Wednesday, (July 5) starting from about 21:30 hours, heavily armed bandits, started moving in to the vicinity of the huge Medium Security Custodian Centre in large numbers on motorbikes and around the Kuje’s environment. Eye witnesses put the numbers of the attackers at over 300.

The attack was well-planned and coordinated. By the time they moved in, they did so in droves. They first announced their presence with a sporadic shootings by the entrance of the facility. They attempted to gain entrance through the main gate. This attempt was successfully repelled. Once the first attempt to gain entrance through the main gate was foiled by the Prison security, compromising the Army, Mobile Policemen, National Security and Civil Defense (NSDC) operatives.

The attackers them moved to the side of the Custodian Home wall. A where a bomb was detonated to pulled down the wall. In a jiffy they had occupied the Correctional Home. They swiftly moved to the cells of the Boko Haram fighters and the bandits, broke loose all the gates and let them out in droves.

The attacks according to the residents close to the area, were said to have lasted till about 12:30 hours of the following morning. When the billowing fire of bomb blasts, high grenade explosions, heavy shootings calmed down, tales of deaths, escapes and looting rent their air.

By dawn, the Controller General of Nigerian Correctional Service, Haliru Nababa gave the details of the casualties. According to him, six inmates, one NSCD operative and 3 of the attackers died in the attack.

Also, the Warders on duty were said to have claimed that some funds belonging to the inmates kept in their custody were also missing. The sum of 82 million naira and 36 thousand US dollars were being mentioned.

The Minister of Defence, Maj  Gen Bashir Magashi (rtd) speaking only confirmed that of the 994 inmates at the prison, 600 escaped.

But Prison officials claims however, contradicted the Minister’s claim. They said that at the end of the attack, following a roll call taken at 2am, on Wednesday, only 111 of the 994 inmates were left.

In all, a total of 879 inmates escaped the facility during the attack. Out of this number, 443 were said to be presently on the run, another 443 were re-captured, leaving the total inmates currently in the facility at 551 in total, a statement from the services states.

According to the statement signed by the Relations Officer of the Service, Abubakar Umar, “the service will deploy its Corrections Information Management System , (CIMS), in collaboration with the National Identity Management Commission, (NIMC),  to track all fleeing inmates and return them to custody.”

The situation had forced the urgent relocation of some other high profile detainees, notably, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, among others out of the Home.

As at the time of attack on that Teusday’s night, more than 30 armed officials were on ground at the Kuje Custodial Centre, FCT.

These security agents included officials of Nigeria’s correctional centre, army, police officers, immigration officers, civil defence officials and mobile police officers.

Inconsistencies in claims aside, the cold face confronting the nation is the high numbers of hardened terrorists now let loose into the society, of particular interest is the kidnapping kingpin, Hamisu Wadume. He was said to be missing along with some Boko Haram’s commanders.

Umar Abubakar, a spokesperson for the Nigerian Correctional Service, in his comments to the press, vowed that officials will “track all fleeing inmates and return them to custody,”

The Kuje Custodian Home facility has replaced Kirikiri Maximum Security correctional facility as the ‘VIP prison’ for prominent Nigerians. Some of the current occupants include ex-lawmakers, former governors and terrorists.

Some prominent Nigerians like the Chief Whip of the Senate, Orji Uzor Kalu, Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa, Olisa Metuh, Femi Fani-Kayode recently had brief stinks at the prison.

Despite the status of the correctional centre, questions have been raised against the backdrop of the ease at which terrorists successfully attacked the prison and freed inmates, including several terrorists.

While terrorists operated at the facility for hours, a major military formation is in Gwagwalada, and there are several military checkpoints, just 15 minutes from the prison. In addition, major cantonments like Mogadishu, Niger, and Lungi are less than 45 minutes from the prison.

However, President Muhammadu Buhari same day visited the Medium Security Custodial Centre. He spent about 30 minutes there.

He was received  by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior, Dr. Shuaib Mohammad Lamido Belgore and the Controller General of Nigerian Correctional Service, Haliru Nababa. The duo showed him the bombed-out section used to access first, and the records office which was set on fire, adding that the invaders thereafter launched an attack on all the cells in which Boko Haram terrorists were held.

The President was apprised that, at the end of it, none of the 63 terrorists are accounted for, but it was emphasized that records are not lost because they have been backed up.

President Buhari was shocked by both the scale and audacity of the attack queried: “How did the defences at the prison fail to prevent the attack? How many inmates were in the facility? How many of them can you account for? How many personnel did you have on duty? How many of them were armed? Were there guards on the watchtower? What did they do? Does the CCTV work?” Question after question.

Alhaji Shehu Garba, the Media and Publicity aide to the President said in a statement that the ‘President was also informed that the security forces have recaptured 350 of the escapees while about 450 others are still unaccounted for, and that rapid work is under way to recapture the rest.

After inspecting some of the points impacted by the attack, President Buhari spoke to newsmen, expressing disappointment with the intelligence system (and utilization).

“I am disappointed with the intelligence system. How can terrorists organize, have weapons, attack a security installation and get away with it?”

The President, who was accompanied by Mr. Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, his Chief of Staff, said at the end of the visit that he is expecting “a comprehensive report” on the incident. The Minister of the Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola was also at the facility to access the damages done by the invaders.

Angered Nigerians have however, started venting the angers on government officials in cahrge of the Correctional Homes. The Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, slammed the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, in a statement released to the press. The body said the Minister must be sacked with immediate effect over his failure to put an end to the incessant attacks on prisons in the country.

HURIWA’s position was contained in a statement on Thursday signed by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, where it condemned the jailbreaks under Aregbesola’s watch.

The group stated that, in the last five years, there have been over 15 jailbreaks under the former Osun State governor while over 3,000 inmates have escaped from custody.

To them, this is unpardonable.

Also, the Civil Society Organization (CSO), Center for Democratic and Security Reforms called on the  President, Muhammadu Buhari to immediately sack the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the Minister of Defense for what it described as laxity and gross failure to coordinate operations in the face of ever daring terrorists activities in the country, further accusing the NSA of direct complicity in all the terrorists attacks recently in the country especially the Kuje prison attacks which took place on the 5th of July, 2022.

Addressing journalists in Abuja on Thursday, Executive Secretary of the group, Alhaji Shettima Ibn Hamisu, wondered why terrorists numbering more than 300 and riding on motorcycles can attack a medium security prison housing high profile criminals under the nose of the NSA without being challenged

“We are appalled by the barbaric and dastard attacks that took place in the Federal Capital Territory on a medium prison facility where the office of the NSA is headquartered. It is shameful that the NSA has woefully failed to gather and coordinate operations even within few kilometers from his office and residence. This is totally unacceptable and must be sacked to pave way for a competent Nigerian who will resuscitate operations coordination of the comatose state the current occupant of the office has left it”, the statement insisted.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the attack,  Federal Government has declared about 69 fleeing condemned Boko Haram terrorists wanted. 

The Nigerian Correctional Service on Friday (8 July) released the names and images of the 69 inmates with cases of terrorism who escaped from the Kuje Medium Custodial Centre in Abuja.

Also, a massive manhunts have been launched to track the fleeing inmates down and return them back to the Centre. Already some were said to have voluntarily returned. One of the retunes, Adamu Eli narrated to newsmen that the terrorist came in large numbers during the night. He said they opened the cells for them, preached for about 20 minutes, then distributed clothes and transportation fares to them and asked them to leave.