Bu our reporter| President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday expressed disappointment with the intelligence system and utilisation at the Medium Security Custodial Centre, Kuje in Abuja, even as the Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) has claimed responsibility for the carnage.
A visibly angry Buhari stated this while speaking to journalists during his visit to the correctional facility which came under attack by terrorists last night.
“I am disappointed with the intelligence system,” President Buhari was quoted as saying in a statement by presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu.
“How can terrorists organise, have weapons, attack a security installation and get away with it?”
Shortly after he arrived at the facility, the President was briefed about the attack by the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Interior, Dr. Shuaib Belgore, and the Controller General of Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Haliru Nababa.
Both men showed President Buhari the bombed-out section and the records office, which was set on fire, adding that the invaders thereafter launched an attack on all cells in which Boko Haram terrorists were held.
He was also apprised that, at the end of the attack, none of the 63 terrorists were accounted for, but the records were not lost because they had been backed up.
The President was also informed that the security forces have recaptured 350 of the escapees while about 450 others were still unaccounted for, and that rapid work was underway to recapture them.
According to Shehu, President Buhari, like most Nigerians, was shocked by both the scale and audacity of the attack.
“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, accompanied by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, and his Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, said he was expecting “a comprehensive report” on the incident at the end of the visit.
Meanwhile, the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The terror group made the disclosure on Wednesday night via a statement written in Arabic and shared via A’maq Agency, a news channel run by the Islamic State.
“Islamic State fighters penetrated the prison of the Nigerian government yesterday (Tuesday), in Kuje city, on the outskirts of the capital, Abuja, after demolishing its walls, and successfully liberated dozens of prisoners,” a translation of the statement read.
A researcher who analyses ISWAP activities in sub-Saharan Africa, Tomasz Rolbecki, also linked the attack on the correctional facility to the terrorist group.
“I wanted to believe it was not them (ISWAP), but here we are,” he said in a series of tweets while also quoting and sharing A’maq Agency’s video.
“Watching the IS supporter groups right now, they are, as expected, absolutely ecstatic (sadly) and are using the same name as the campaign of prison breaks in Iraq in 2012-13 (the infamous “Breaking the Walls” campaign).
“There is one question to answer – how did ISWAP manage to do it? From previous claims, the cells that could’ve been responsible (I’m talking about the one in Suleja and the one in Kogi) seemed very small and unable to do something at such a scale.”
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