The Senate has directed its Committee on Interior to commence a full-scale investigation on the rising cases of jail breaks across the country.
The was part of the resolution reached by the Senate on Tuesday following a motion, titled “Terror Attacks on Two Communities in Plateau North and Jail Break at the Jos Medium Security Correctional Centre Jos.” brought to the floor by Senator Istifanus Gyang at plenary.
Gyang, while coming under orders 42 and 52 of the Senate Rules to present his motion, noted with grief the multiple terror attacks on two communities of Ta’egbe, Rigwe land and Durbi, Sheri District in Bassa and Jos East Local Governments, leading to the deaths of over ten persons over the weekend.
Consequently, the Upper Chamber resolved to summon the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, and the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Haliru Nababa, to determine the status of correctional centres nationwide, with a view to finding out the challenges in order to prevent future occurrence..
According to him, the attack, caused by a security breach at Jos Medium Security Correctional Centre, was a setback to the relative and much desired peace in Plateau North.
He disclosed that nine inmates, including an officer identified as Umar A. Mohammed, were also killed, while 252 inmates escaped during the jail break.
He, therefore, called on the National Assembly to rise to the occasion by appropriating more funds to security agencies to enable them undertake recruitment of more personnel.
Meanwhile, the Controller-General of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Haliru Nababa, has blamed the lack of adequate funding for the inability of the Service to deploy technology in manning its custodial centres nationwide.
The CG made this known yesterday when he visited the Jos medium security Custodial Centre which was attacked on Sunday evening by gunmen.
ALSO READ :NDLEA Destroys Over N50 Billion Worth of Illicit Drugs in Abuja
Represented by the Deputy Controller-General, (Operations), Mohammed Tukur, the CG explained that there was no way custodial centres would be adequately manned manually, except with the help of technology.
“if we don’t have enough releases from the government, there is no way we will be able to cover all our custodial centres with CCTV,” he said.
Speaking with journalists shortly after inspecting the custodial centre, he disclosed that armed guards on duty were overpowered before help came, adding that so far, 17 of the 252 inmates that escaped on Sunday had been recaptured.
He also expressed optimism that with the assistance of sister security agencies, the fleeing inmates would be recaptured soon.
The CG said: “On the faithful day, the attackers came, met armed men outside the gate of the correctional facility and before they knew what was happening, the attackers had gunned down one of them and the remaining officers had to engage them.
“However, because of the number of assailants that came, they were able to penetrate into the main yard of the custodial centre and some of our inmates escaped. Some through the fence, some through the door here. From the door here, if not for the repairs, you would have seen the bullet holes here. That’s how they got in.
“Because of the vibrancy of our men, they were able to stop everybody from going out. If you look at this, you will see that we have Police headquarters, Police barracks, in front of the custodial centre and the DSS is behind us, all these people including the military and the NSCDC were all here to help in seeing that all of these people did not go out.
“To them, we are grateful. That is the essence of synergy. Some of the inmates died through bullet wounds, we also lost a staff, an armed guard. One of the staff was wounded and six of the inmates are right now in the hospital receiving treatments from bullet wounds and scratches.”
