Dare-devil gunmen suspected to be members of the dreaded Boko Haram terrorist group, around 10pm on Tuesday, July 5, laid siege to the Medium Security Custodial Centre, Kuje Abuja, before attacking the facility with explosive devices and sophisticated assault weapons.
The gunmen numbering about 300, according to eyewitnesses, rode on motorcycles to waltz through multiple military and police checkpoints in Nigeria’s capital city, before successfully overpowering a garrison of the Nigerian Army and a Police contingent deployed to provide perimeter security for a facility that holds high-level convicts and dangerous criminals awaiting trial, Quest Times can authoritatively report.
It was an attack that has left even President Buhari perplexed.
The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), which splintered from the terrorist Boko Haram group in Nigeria, has since claimed responsibility for the dastardly attack on one of Nigeria’s foremost detention facilities.
Residents of the sleepy Kuje town raised an alarm around 10:20 pm Tuesday, when they started hearing gunshots and explosions that shook windows and blinds.
They scampered for safety and fled for their lives during the attack that many initially thought was targeted at the residents of El-Rufai Estate, Kuje.
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NSCDC officers killed in defence of the facility
The attackers invaded the facility with high calibre weapons, maiming, burning, and bombing their way through obstacles and attempts by armed personnel on duty to repel the attack.
At the end of the siege, a statement by the Correctional Service Public Relations Officer, Umar Abubakar, revealed that a total of 879 inmates escaped from the facility, though 443 have been recaptured.
551 inmates are currently in the facility with 4 inmates dead. 16 inmates sustained various degrees of injuries and are being treated at the moment.
Two officers of the NSCDC also paid the ultimate price, while at least 8 officers of the Nigeria Correctional Service sustained various degrees of injuries.
Kuje has experienced heightened insecurity in recent months. Kidnapping for ransom, armed robbery and ritual killings are now commonplace in the community.
Only two weeks ago, the body of Hussani Aliyu Takuma, was recovered by the police from his farm after he was brutally murdered.
The Nigerian Police and Military have since doubled their personnel stationed in and around Kuje, and other adjoining satellite towns in Abuja.
However, a lot still has to be said about how the attackers of the Kuje Correctional Facility evaded the watchful gaze of the security apparatchik, operated for over an hour and escaped arrest by the state.
After the attack on the Nigerian Correctional Centre in Abolongo, Oyo state, the leadership of the Ministry of Interior which supervises the agency, directed that all Custodial facilities in the country be fortified by personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC.
It also wrote and sought the cooperation of the Nigeria Army and the Nigeria Police Force to provide additional security coverage for the facilities across the country.
Stationed permanently at the Kuje Correctional Centre are an Armoured Tank, platoons of soldiers and Mobile Police Operatives, with armed officers of NSCDC, men of the Department of State Security, and NCoS providing support on perimeter security.
At the time of the attack, 38 military personnel were on the ground in addition to men of the Nigeria Police, Civil Defence, DSS, and armed squad of the Correctional Service.
The Defence Minister, who supervises the military and other top government officials, paid an inspection visit to the centre on Wednesday, stating that the attackers came in with high explosives to attack a section of the perimeter wall.
“The incident took about 30 minutes, then reinforcements arrived. The inmates here are about 994. And when they broke out, because this people came specifically, we understand they are Boko Haram, they came specifically for their co-conspirators.
“In order to get them, they broke out other people in the general population so they can escape,” the Minister of Defence, Maj. Gen. Bashir Magashi (rtd) said.
A security expert and retired intelligence officer, Mr. Mohammed Bashir, noted that the attack on the Kuje Custodial facility goes beyond the ability of the Nigerian state to properly secure inmates, but calls to question the entire security architecture of the Nigerian State.
“I understand that the Guards Brigade takes charge of the security of the seat of power. Even whilst driving into Kuje, Kubwa, Gwagwalada and its environs, you see them setting up check points.
“So how were the attackers able to sneak in with their weapons undetected and leave unscathed? It calls to question the entire security architecture of the Nigerian State as this is too close to the seat of power in Nigeria,” Bashir noted.