Minister of Defence Bashir Magashi has disclosed that most of the inmates who escaped from Kuje prison in Abuja on Tuesday, July 5, were Boko Haram suspects.
Residents around the prison facility reported heavy gunfire that lasted for well over an hour on the night.
It was learnt that explosives were used to blow open the prison facility before the captives were set free.
According to Shuaib Belgore, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior, the attackers arrived the prison facility “very prepared” with explosives.
During a press briefing in the aftermath of the attack, Magashi said the assailants were Boko Haram insurgents and that 64 Boko Haram suspects who were inmates in the facility can no longer be found.
“What actually happened, they came in their numbers and released some of the inmates. We are now trying to see the kind of inmates they released,” Magashi says.
“We are trying to see what we can do to see that all escapees 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 adds.
Some high profile politically exposed persons like disgraced ex-super cop Abba Kyari and former lawmaker Farouk Lawan, former governors and ministers, were among the inmates in Kuje prison when the attack occurred.
Established in 1989, Kuje prison has minimum and maximum holding cells.
Prison breaks have spiked in Nigeria since 1,993 inmates were freed from two prisons in Edo State in October 2020, with another major break in Imo State freeing 1,844 inmates in April of 2021.
There was yet another prison break in Kogi in September of 2021 in which 240 inmates escaped.
It’s unclear how many inmates from previous prison breaks have been recovered, as Nigerian authorities have failed to give an account of them.