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Dr, Ahmad Lawan, President of the Senate, has alleged that attackers of the Kuje Medium Security Correctional Centre, had help from insiders in the facility who facilitated the onslaught.
He also said the attack was a testament to the state of Nigeria’s security apparatus at the moment.
The federal government had said the security forces had been mobilised and charged to secure the immediate capture of the attackers and escapees, ordering the activation of checkpoints nationwide in a bid to track them down.
The Senate President disclosed his stance when he led the Senate leadership to have an on-the-spot assessment of the level of mayhem and destruction at the facility. The Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Haliru Nababa, took the senators around the prison.
Lawan revealed that an attack of such magnitude could only have been successful with assistance from insiders within the country’s correctional system.
He faulted the Nigerian Correctional Service for not providing Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) at the Kuje correctional facility and others across the country.
Lawan said, “The attack on this correctional facility is symptomatic of the failure of security failure. The attack is only a culmination of the failure. We were told that an estimated 300 terrorists attacked this facility. They came on foot, and I believe they should have been detected.
“In the first place, 300 people will not come for an operation like this without planning. Planning must have taken a week, a month or a bit more. I believe that our security agencies should have picked this from their tracking systems in the FCT.
“Secondly, having gone round the facility itself, we are disappointed that this facility does not have Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras, something that would record and give you details of what is happening and sometimes record the events.
“This is a medium-security custodial centre, how on earth in the FCT facility of this magnitude we don’t have CCTV? It means we can say that all other medium security centres across the country do not have CCTV.
See Also: Gunmen Attack Kuje Prison, Release Inmates
“We have asked the Comptroller General of Correctional Centre to ensure that the request for CCTV at the maximum and medium custodial centres of the country are included in their 2023 budget, because this is essential and indispensable.
“Now, as this facility lacks a functional CCTV, there’s no record of what happened, except narration. But if we had CCTV, at least the records would have been there and analysis made, and arrest will be based on the information from the CCTV.
“Thirdly, going from one cell to another to release people, specifically, those that are known to be insurgents, tells a lot of story. It may not be far away from an insider job, someone, who is either working in this place or must have worked here. I think we have to look deeper into what happened, so that we find the culprits, because when things like this happen, then there should be sanctions.
“Where people fail to do their job properly, and they have been given that responsibility, they should be asked to take responsibility. If people don’t take responsibility for their failure, then it means nobody would bother to do what is expected of their office or the job that the person has been given.
“Having this kind of situation today in the FCT, that we have criminals, who are free now all over the city is very dangerous and you can never have peace of mind. The FCT has the seat of government, and today that seat is not safe. So, we have to do whatever it takes to get everybody back.”
Lawan charged security forces to ensure the prompt capture of the escaped terrorists and the attackers.
Source: ThisDay