Tuesday’s attack on Kuje prison is an indication that Nigeria’s security architecture has failed, Senate President. Ahmad Lawan has said.
Mr. Lawan made this statement Thursday when he led a Senate leadership delegation to the damaged prison.
Lawan’s comments came around the same time Home Minister Rauf Aregebesola said the attack occurred despite the fortification of prison defenses and other prisons in Nigeria.
President Muhammadu Buhari also lamented the security situation at the prison during his visit to the facility a day after the incident.
PREMIUM TIMES reported on the attack on the Kuje detention center by terrorists who used explosives and firearms.
According to authorities, more than 800 inmates escaped from the prison, about half of them still at large and others recaptured.
Senate President Ahmed Lawan inspecting Kuje Prison after the terror attack
Among those still at large are some 64 members of the Boko Haram terror group who were being held at the facility.
A breakaway Boko Haram faction, ISWAP, claimed responsibility for the attack, which it said was to free its members detained at the facility.
During his visit Thursday, Lawan said the attack “could only have been possible with the collaboration of people within the nation’s corrections system.”
He blamed the Nigerian Correctional Service for failing to provide Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) in the Kuje prison and others across the country.
Details of Mr. Lawan’s visit are contained in a statement by his spokesman, Ezrel Tabiowo.
Read the full statement below.
Attack by Kuje terrorists symptomatic of security failure, internal conspiracy: President of the Senate
… says that the relevant authorities must be sanctioned
…failures lack of closed circuit television in the correctional center
Senate President Ahmed Lawan inspecting Kuje Prison after the terror attack
Senate President Ahmad Lawan has said Tuesday’s attack on the Kuje Medium Security Custody Center by terrorists speaks volumes about the failure of the country’s security architecture.
Lawan made this statement Thursday when he led a Senate leadership delegation to assess the level of attack on the prison by insurgents.
Lawmakers from the Senate delegation, which also had some members of the National Security and Intelligence Committee, were led around the facility by the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Haliru Nababa.
According to the President of the Senate, an attack on the Kuje Medium Security Custody Center could only have been possible with the collaboration of insiders within the nation’s correctional system.
He blamed the Nigerian Correctional Service for failing to provide Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) in the Kuje prison and others across the country.
Senate President Ahmed Lawan inspecting Kuje Prison after the terror attack
The President of the Senate requested the Comptroller General of the NCS to include a request for the provision of CCTV in the maximum and medium correctional centers across the country in his 2023 budget proposal to the National Assembly for approval.
Speaking after an assessment of the correctional facility, Mr. Lawan said: “The attack on this correctional facility is a symptom of the breach of the security breach. The attack is only the culmination of failure.
“We were told that approximately 300 terrorists attacked this facility. They came on foot, and I think they should have been detected.
“First of all, three hundred people are not going to come to an operation like this without planning. The planning must have taken a week, a month or a little more.
“I think our security agencies should have picked this up from their tracking systems at the FCT.
“Secondly, having toured the facility itself, we are disappointed that this facility does not have closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras, something that would record and detail what is happening and sometimes record the events.
Senate President Ahmed Lawan inspecting Kuje Prison after the terror attack
“This is a medium security custody facility, how the hell do FCT facilities of this magnitude not have CCTV? It means that we can say that all the other medium security centers in the whole country do not have CCTV.
“We have asked the Comptroller General of Penitentiary Centers to include in its 2023 budget the request for closed circuit television in the maximum and medium penitentiary centers of the country because it is fundamental and indispensable.
“Now, as this facility lacks functional CCTV, there is no record of what happened except for the narration. But if we had CCTV, at least the records would have been there and analysis would have been done, and the arrest will be based on the CCTV information.
“Third, going from cell to cell to free people, specifically known insurgents, tells a lot of history.
“It may not be too far from an inside job, someone who is working at this place or must have worked here.
“I think we have to go deeper into what happened, to find the culprits, because when things like that happen, then there should be sanctions.
“When people don’t do their jobs properly and they’ve been given that responsibility, they should be asked to take responsibility.
“If people do not take responsibility for their failure, it means that no one would bother to do what is expected of their position or the job that the person has been assigned.
“Having this type of situation today in the FCT, that we have criminals that are now free throughout 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 everyone back.”
Mr. Lawan therefore instructed the security agencies to ensure that the insurgents who escaped from the Kuje medium security custody center are found and brought back.
Briefing lawmakers earlier, the Nigerian Army Battalion Commander in Gwagwalada, Lt. Col. Adisa, told the Senate Leadership that more than three hundred insurgents were behind Tuesday’s attack on the Kuje medium security custody facility.
According to him, only a total of fifty security personnel were on site when the terrorists armed with improvised explosive devices stormed the facility to free the insurgents.
Signed:
Ezrel Tabiowo
Special Assistant (Press)To the President of the Senate
Thursday, July 7, 2022.