Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, has said the attack on the Kuje Medium Security Custodial Centre in Abuja was successful because it was carried out in active connivance with some insiders at the facility.
Lawan said the attack on the correctional centre was symptomatic of the failure of security architecture, noting that the attack could only have been possible with the collaboration of insiders at the correctional centre.
The Senate President further expressed disappointment over the lack of Close Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras at the Kuje Medium Security Custodial Centre, which was attacked by terrorists on Tuesday.
Lawan, however, ordered the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) to make provision for CCTV in all correctional centres in its 2023 budget to tackle reoccurring attacks in the country.
He made this known on Thursday when he led a delegation of the senate leadership to assess the level of destruction done to the correctional centre by insurgents.
He said: “An attack on the Kuje Medium Security Custodial Centre can only have been possible with the collaboration of insiders within the nation’s correctional system.
“The attack on this correctional facility is symptomatic of the failure of security architecture. The attack is only a culmination of the failure.
“We were told that an estimated 300 suspected 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.
“I believe that our security agencies should have picked this from their tracking systems in the FCT,” Lawan said.
He added: “Secondly, having gone round the facility itself, we are disappointed that this facility does not have CCTV cameras, something that would record and give you details of what is happening and sometimes record the events.
“This is a medium security custodial centre, how on earth in the FCT facility of this magnitude we don’t have CCTV? It means we can say that all other medium security centres across the country do not have CCTV.
READ ALSO: Kuje attack: Lawan fumes, orders installation of CCTV in prisons
“We have asked the Comptroller General of Correctional Service to ensure that the request for CCTV at the maximum and medium custodial centres of the country are included in their 2023 budget because this is essential and indispensable.
“Now, as this facility lacks a functional CCTV, there’s no record of what happened, except narration. But if we had CCTV, at least the records would have been there and analysis made, and arrest will be based on the information from the CCTV.”
“Thirdly, going from one cell to another to release people, specifically, those that are known to be insurgents, tells a lot of story. It may not be far away from an insider job, someone, who is either working in this place or must have worked here. I think we have to look deeper into what happened, so that we find the culprits, because when things like this happen, then there should be sanctions.
“Where people fail to do their job properly, and they have been given that responsibility, they should be asked to take responsibility. If people don’t take responsibility for their failure, then it means nobody would bother to do what is expected of their office or the job that the person has been given.
“Having this kind of situation today in the FCT, that we have criminals, who are free now all over 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 everybody back,” Lawan stated.
The Senate President, therefore, tasked the security agencies to ensure that the inmates who escaped from the centre were brought back.
The Star had reported that the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack on the Kuje correctional centre.
NCoS had said four inmates of the correctional centre died while 879 escaped during the attack on the facility by terrorists.
It stated that the assailants broke into the Kuje prison using explosive devices through the main entrance and the fence of the facility respectively.
The Service added that an operative of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) attached to the correctional centre was killed, noting that three personnel of the NCoS were injured.
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