The Federal Government on Thursday began uploading the data of 60 terrorists and other criminals to the International Criminal Police Organisation database.
The terrorists and the other criminals were among those who escaped when a terrorist group, the Islamic State of West African Province , bombed the Kuje Correctional Centre on Tuesday night.
As of press time, it was learnt that the details of most of the escapees had already been uploaded.
The Spokesman, Nigeria Correctional Service, Umar Abubakar, who confirmed this to The Punch on Thursday, disclosed that the names, pictures and other data of the inmates have been circulated to other security agencies.
When asked if the NCoS has dispatched the data of the terrorists to Interpol, Abubakar said, “They are working on it; the ones they uploaded are not too clear to my liking and the management’s liking. Hopefully, they should be through tonight.
“Yes, we have access to the (Interpol) database. Every inmate or suspect that is brought to our facility, we photograph him and have the details about him before it goes to our database.
“They are trying to upload it and work on it so we can have the details of the offences committed and have the next-of-kin and take appropriate actions.”
Asked if the service had alerted other security agencies to look out for the fleeing inmates, Abubakar stated, “Yes, we have sent the list to other security agencies but the issue is that we want to upload the information with their pictures captured for easy identification by this night (Thursday) or earliest tomorrow morning (Friday); by 8am, we should be through.”
Checks by one of our correspondents showed that the reconstruction of the bombed Kuje prison began on Thursday.
A senior officer disclosed that the walls are being fortified as directed by the government.
Responding to claims that there were no close circuit cameras at the facility, a senior officer who spoke on condition of anonymity dismissed it as untrue.
He stated, “The prison has CCTVs, it is just that the cameras do not cover as far as the gate where the soldiers are. But within the walls, there is CCTV. The pictures of the fleeing inmates have been sent to Interpol.”
It was learnt that Mustapha Umar, a man who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison by a Federal High Court in 2013 for bombing the Kaduna office of ThisDay newspapers is among the 60 Boko Haram members that escaped when terrorists attacked the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja on Tuesday, The PUNCH has learnt.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola had ordered that Mustapha spend the rest of his life in jail for bombing the office of ThisDay using 12 camp gas cylinders in 2012. A list of the fleeing inmates obtained on Thursday showed that some suspected Boko Haram members currently standing trial are among the fleeing inmates.
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Yasir Salihu aka Dan Birni, an avowed Boko Haram member who confessed to killing influential Kaduna cleric, Sheikh Auwal Albani, on the order of the late Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau, is also among those who escaped. Also on the list is Kyari Goni, a former commander from Shekau’s faction who willingly surrendered to the military.
Others on the list are: Shehu Abdullahi, Suleiman Idi, Suleiman Zacharia, Yakubu Abdullahi, Yasir Salihu, Yunusa Mukaiya, Bello Haruna, Biliyaminu Usman, Sunday Michael, Bello Haruna, Bilyaminu Usman, Bukar Ali, Ibrahim Mohammed, Ikya Abur, Ismail Abdullahi, Modu Aji, Mohammed Sani, Musa Abubakar, Fannami Bukar, Faruku Waziri, Hassan Hassan, Ibrahim Musa, Idris Ojo and Ishaq Farouq
Mohammed Guja, Mohammed Buba, Abdulmannan Obadiki, Abubakar Musa, Abubakar Umar, Adamu Mohammed, Ahmadu Hagola, Asama Kanti, Baluye Modu, Bassey Kingsley, Diko Iko, Abdulkareem Musa, Andulsalami Adamu, Abubakar Habibu, Abubhakar Sadiq, and Abubakar Mohammed were also listed.
Meanwhile, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan has said that Tuesday’s attack on the Kuje Medium Security Custodial Centre by terrorists speaks volumes about the failure of the country’s security architecture.
Lawan who led a delegation of the leadership of the Senate to assess the level of attack on the correctional facility, faulted the prisons authorities for not providing Closed Circuit Television at the Kuje correctional facility and others across the country.
He added, “The attack on this correctional facility is symptomatic of the failure of security failure. The attack is only a culmination of the failure of security systems.
“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.
Briefing the lawmakers earlier, the Commanding Officer of the Nigerian Army Battalion in Gwagwalada, Lieutenant Colonel Adisa, told the Senate Leadership that over three hundred insurgents were behind Tuesday’s attack on the Kuje medium security custodial facility.
According to him, only a total of 50 security operatives were on the ground when the terrorists armed with IEDs stormed the facility to release the insurgents.
Reacting to the jail break, rights activist, Femi Falana (SAN), has alleged the Federal Government had foreknowledge of the Kuje attack.
Falana said this at the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, Lagos State Chapter’s 14th Distinguished Lecture Series themed “Professionals in Partisan Politics: Appraising their roles in Envisioning Economic Growth and Development of Nigeria,” held in Lagos on Thursday.
He accused the Federal Government of merely creating a false impression of concern, and that the government indeed knew about the attack at the medium-security facility.
