“How did the defences at the prison fail to prevent the attack? How many inmates were in the facility? How many of them can you account for? How many personnel did you have on duty? How many of them were armed? Were there guards on the watchtower? What did they do? Does the CCTV work?”
These are loads of Questions after questions which President Muhammadu Buhari asked today, July 6, when he visited the Medium Security Custodial Centre (Prison), Kuje, Abuja, which was attacked last night, July 5, by terrorists.
The President, who spent over 30 minutes being briefed about the attack by the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Interior, Dr. Shuaib Mohammad Lamido Belgore and the Controller General of Nigerian Correctional Service, Haliru Nababa, was apprised that, at the end of it, none of the 63 terrorists are accounted for.
Buhari said that though records are not lost as such records have been backed up, but that he, like most Nigerians, was shocked by both the scale and audacity of the attack.
The President was informed that the security forces have recaptured 350 of the escapees while about 450 others are still unaccounted for, and that rapid work is under way to recapture the rest.
After inspecting some of the points impacted by the attack, President Buhari spoke to newsmen, expressing disappointment with the utilization of intelligence system.
“I am disappointed with the intelligence system. How can terrorists organize, have weapons, attack a security installation and get away with it?”
The President, accompanied by Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, the Chief of Staff, said that he is expecting “a comprehensive report” on the incident.
Meanwhile, the Presidency has said that Governments don’t stop working because nations face terrorist threats.
Reacting to what he called mounting criticism of the proposed trip by President Buhari to Dakar, Senegal, the senior special assistant, Garba Shehu said: “to cancel the trip to Senegal would mean that the terrorists are successful in calling the shots, something that no responsible government in the world will allow.”
