The Federal Government has warns criminals across its correctional facilities across the Federation to desist from jailbreak attempts.
According to The PUNCH, this was disclosed by the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, on Thursday, who also revealed that the federal government had foiled another jailbreak attempt following the attack on the Kuje Correctional facility in early July 2022.
Aregbesola did not explain which penitentiary facility he was referring to when he stated that those responsible for the incident had been “sent to their maker.”
He further claimed that no escaping inmate could hide forever because their biometrics were permanently saved on the Nigeria Police database.
When asked what the main reason behind the ongoing jailbreaks was, Aregbesola responded, “It is the season. You don’t want to hear it, I know that. Has Nigeria ever experienced what it is experiencing right now? It is global and it is the season.
“Why do we have assassinations in America? Bad as it is, it is horrible, but in America, people get killed every second. In California, within the last week in America, 20 people have been killed. Did you ask why? It has nothing to do with technology; it could even be linked to climate change.
“When things are hard, people who cannot manage their stability resort to those types of things. You can’t say there is no terrorism in Nigeria; we are managing it. You can’t say there is no banditry in Nigeria; we are managing it. It is because of the level of insecurity in Nigeria, and we are arising from it. It is as simple as that.”
He promised Nigerians that jailbreaks in the future would be challenging and that some of prisoners who tried to do so after Kuje had been “sent to their maker.”
“So, we are doing our best to ensure that it will be difficult for anybody to attack our facilities. You may not know that some had attempted and we have sent them back to their maker.
“Take it; it is no longer game as usual. We are equipping our men to, on their own, defend those facilities. And those sister agencies are equally upping their capacity to protect and defend our facilities. And we’re improving the design of our facilities to make them almost impregnable.
“So it’s sad; we are not happy that the facilities are being attacked. But it’s a function of the season and we will be deceiving ourselves if we don’t admit it. So we are up for it. Whoever attempts to dare our will, will not live to tell the story,” he said.
