It has now been confirmed that 600 inmates of Kuje Correctional Service In Abuja escaped during a terrorists attack on the facility yesterday.
This is according to the Minister of Defence, Major General Bashir Magashi.
Of all the 600 inmates that escaped, 300 have been recovered while 300 are still at large.
The Minister gave the account of the attack and revealed that the attackers outnumbered the prison guards and were well armed with explosives.
“They came in with high explosives they attempted the initial entry with a very high explosive, but they were unsuccessful.”
“Then they attacked another section of the wall with even higher grade explosive which brought the wall down. The forces on ground did everything they could to repel them but the numbers they came with was overwhelming which they were not able to fight against. But they kept on fighting gallantly, unfortunately the breach happened.”
He said 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, some of them are now in the general population. So they broke out and other people in that general population also escaped.”
He however added that many of them have returned, they have reported themselves to the police, some we have successfully retrieved from the bushes were they were hiding.
