Pres. Muhammadu Buhari Wednesday visited the Medium Security Custodial Center, Kuje, Abuja – scene of last night’s attack by terrorists.
The President said he was disappointed with the intelligence system and utilisation at the centre.
“I am disappointed with the intelligence system,” he said according to a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity – Garba Shehu. “How can terrorists organise, have weapons, attack a security installation and get away with it?”
On arrival at the facility, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Interior, Dr Shuaib Belgore, and the Controller-General of Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Haliru Nababa, brought the President up to speed on the attack. They showed him the bombed-out section of the facility as well as the records office which the attackers set on fire before launching attacks on all the cells holding Boko Haram terrorists.
At the end of the attack, none of the 63 imprisoned terrorists were accounted for but the records were not lost because they had been backed up, they told the President.
The President was also informed the that security forces had recaptured 350 of the escapees while roughly 450 others were still being hunted for.
Pres. Buhari, like most Nigerians, was shocked by both the scale and the audacity of the attack, Shehu said..
“How did the defences at the prison fail to prevent the attack?” the President queried. “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?”
The President who was accompanied to the facility by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha; his Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, at the end of the visit, said he was expecting “a comprehensive report” on the incident.
In a related development, the Islamic State in West Africa Province, ISWAP, has claimed responsibility for the attack on Kuje Prison.
The terrorists claimed the responsibility in a video released Wednesday night.
In the video, the terrorists showed how some of its members entered the Kuje prison.
The 38 seconds video showed that the terrorists shot indiscriminately before gaining access into the prison.
