BY
AKINWALE ABOLUWADE
Rauf Aregbesola, Minister of Interior, has said that the inmates who escaped from the Abolongo Custodial Centre of the Nigeria Correctional Service, on Friday night, would be recaptured and turned in to the facility.
In all, a total of 907 inmates at the facility were said to have escaped when some yet-to-be identified gunmen broke in to free some of them.
Of this number, the Minister said during his visit to the facility in Oyo town, Oyo State that 446 had been recaptured, while 69 did not attempt to escape from the facility.
Aregbesola said, “I’m assuring Nigerians that the Federal Government will pursue not just those who attacked our facility, but those who have escaped lawful custody.
“The attack was unconscionable. I commend officers of the Nigeria Correctional Service and other members of sister security agencies who provided perimeter security for our facility for fighting gallantly and holding the fort before the attackers were able to gain access to the awaiting trial section of the facility, however, those who escaped are already being pursued. Some have been rearrested, many more will still be captured.
“As at the last count, 446 of the escapees have been recaptured leaving 392 still at large. We want to assure Nigerians that the Service have an updated database of the escapees which includes their biometrics. We are sharing the database with all security agencies in the country, including the Interpol, so those who escape our recapture efforts can be nabbed.
“To those on the run, be assured you have nowhere to hide. You can run, but you can’t hide. We’ll fish you out! We are publishing details of those who escaped in the mass media so the public can assist in that effort.”
The Minister said that the NCoS had been directed to commence remediation work, stating, “I have instructed the CG of NCoS to immediately begin the reconstruction of the damaged parts of the building. We hope to make the facility better secured and more habitable for the inmates.”
The Controller-General of NCoS, Haliru Nababa, said that “The NCoS have, so far, prevented internal jailbreaks in the country. What we have reoccurring in recent times are external attacks on our facilities. We have been retraining our officers not just on securing those in lawful custody, but preventing external attacks.
“We are collaborating with other security agencies in the country to make such attacks near impossible.
“As you can see, workers are already on site fixing damaged doors, broken windows and mounting walls. Before the end of today, work would have been completed on it.”
