Kuje Prison Invasion: How Terrorists Overpowered 65 Armed Security Men – Minister Aregbesola

By Gideon Njoku

The helplessness of Nigeria’s Military in its fight against Terrorists was laid bare Monday on the floor of the House of Representatives before the House Committee investigating the Invasion of the Kuje Correctional Centre, Abuja.

Terrorists had, on July, 5, 2022, invaded the Correctional Centre where they wreaked havoc and released a total number of 888 inmates, including suspected 64 terrorists who were in custody.

Laying bare the shameful situation was the Minister for Interior, Rauf Aregbesola.

The Minister appeared before the House Committee on National Security and Interior which is investigating the embarrassing Invasion of the Kuje Correctional Centre.

Embarrassing as the incident was, the Minister’s submission raised it a notch higher, and explained the helpless furious questions asked  by President Muhammadu Buhari when he visited the Centre after the Invasion.

“How could this happen? I need answers. Where were the Security people”, the angry and obviously embarrassed President asked.

Before the House Committee, Minister Aregbesola admitted that Security agents deployed to the Centre failed.

He disclosed that there were 65 of them at the time of the invasion of the Centre, yet, not even one terrorist was killed, injured or arrested. Instead, a Security agent and three others, perhaps, inmates were killed.

Speaking to the shocked members of the Committee, Aregbesola said: “In that Facility on that day of Invasion were 31 Military personnel of the Nigerian Army, five personnel of MOPOL 50, two personnel of Counter Terrorism  Unit of the Nigeria Police Force, two personnel of Kuje Police Division, seven personnel of Nigeria Immigration Service,  three personnel of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, and 10 personnel of the NCoS armed squad.

“These 65 people were there for the specific responsibility of assisting and preventing any attack, and they were all armed.

The Minister who refused to disclose, publicly, the type of arms they carried,  however, gave an idea how sophisticated the weapons the 65 Security personnel carried.

He said: “Because of the presence of the Press here, I will not tell you the great arsenal in their possession, but they were well-armed.  If we have an exclusive arrangement, I will tell you the specifics of the great equipment of the Military arsenal that was positioned for the defence of the Facility.”

Admitting failure, Aregbesola said: “However, despite everything, our arrangement for protection of Kuje failed and the Facility was breached.”

One of the questions which the Committee will strive to seek answers to is:  why the Security personnel did not deploy the arsenal with them. Another is where they were – asleep or in hiding. If not, what resistance did they put up?

At the time of the attack, according to the Minister, there were 994 inmates. 64 of them were terrorism suspects. Sadly, they were among the 888 inmates who escaped. Out if the 888 inmates, 554 of them were awaiting trial. 71 were convicts, 36 on death row, while 17 of them were serving life sentences. 106 inmates stayed put. They included former Governors of Plateau and Taraba States, Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame respectively, and suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari. While Dariye and Nyame have now been released based on the pardon granted them by President Buhari, DCP Kyari is being prosecuted for alleged drug offences by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA.

More than two months after the Invasion, no head has rolled. It is business as usual.

The Directorate of Security Services, DSS had, it has been reported, tipped the relevant authorities  and Agencies off on the planned attack. Nothing was done, and the attack was successfully carried out.