Prison break is not peculiar to Nigeria. It only worsened during the administration of Muhammadu Buhari as jail breaks were recorded in 11 different states of the country including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.
The incidents occurred due to poor security features such as shortage of armed personnel and weapons required to guard the facilities.
Aside from these, poor management of inmates and high number of awaiting trial prisoners also contribute to overcrowding in Nigeria’s correctional centres, making them vulnerable to attacks and also put the country’s criminal justice system on trial.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) correctional centre statistics data, says at least 65 correctional facilities are overcrowded in southwest Nigeria. It is the same situation in the southeast and south-south. While northern regions are not as bad as this, at least two inmates are staying in the space intended for one person.
On July 5, 2022, Nigeria’s supposed most secure prison, Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja, was attacked and 879 inmates escaped.
Ex-defence minister, Bashir Magashi, would later announce that all the 64 members of the Boko Haram terrorists in the prison fled the facility.
Interestingly, all that followed the jail break was blame games. ex-president Buhari blamed the intelligence gathering system for the security loophole during a visit to the facility.
“I am disappointed with the intelligence system. How can terrorists organise, have weapons, attack a security installation and get away with it? I am expecting a comprehensive report on this shocking incident,” he said.
Ex-senate president Ahmed Lawan said he was shocked there were no Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) devices at the Kuje Prison.
“How on earth does a centre of this magnitude in the FCT not have any CCTV? It means we can say that all other medium security custodial centres across the country do not have CCTV”, Lawan added.
On his part, ex-interior minister Rauf Aregbesola said “we have enough men to protect this facility but unfortunately they couldn’t hold their position effectively for defence and that was the reason for the breach.”
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One year after the Kuje attack, Nigerian authorities say they are still searching for more than 400 inmates who escaped from the prison.
The spokesperson of the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS), Abubakar Umar, said 415 inmates have been recaptured and the search is still ongoing to apprehend over 400 escapees.
Tunde Aliyu, a security expert, expressed displeasure over the failure of security operatives to recapture inmates that escaped from prisons..
“The fact that many inmates are still at large means all security sectors are complicit in the poor security management of the custodial centres. The federal government must also as a matter of fact ensure that the leadership of the correctional service participate in the security meetings because they know the prisoners more than other security personnel.
“It is also sad that we lack basic modern security apparatuses such as closed circuit televisions that could capture what is going on outside. All of these, I believe, are making rearrest of those who escaped difficult.”
