There was another jailbreak attempt after Kuje incident, says Aregbesola

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?”