By Paul Michael
As anxiety continues to mount at the nation’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) following last night’s terrorist attack on Kuje Medium and Maximum Security Prisons, where over a thousand inmates were said to have escaped, an eyewitness, Abubakar Musa, has given a detailed account of what transpired.
According to Musa, who is an inmate, the terrorists numbering over 300 stormed the prison with explosives and assorted weapons around 10:00 pm in an operation that lasted more than 2 hours. The Trumpet Gathered
He said all the armed security operatives on ground had escaped at the arrival of the terrorists, who operated successfully and escaped with about 150 terrorists that were in prison alongside over 1200 other inmates before reinforcement of security an hour later after the departure of the terrorists.
Musa added that of the total 1,476 inmates in the Kuje prison, only 111 inmates which include former Governor of Taraba State, Jolly Nyame, Farouk Lawal, Abba Kyari, and four of his co-accused, refused to escape.
He said, “Only God that saved us today. For over 2 hours and 45 minutes, more than 300 terrorists took over the Kuje prison in Abuja with GPMGs, Bombs, RPGs, Many Rifles, etc. It’s God that saved us, over 1200 Prisoners and over 150 terrorists escaped successfully.
“The total population of the Kuje prison inmates is about 1,476, and only 111 of the inmates refused to escape and decided to remain in the prison as 90 percent of the inmates escaped. Those that decided not to escape include former Governor Jolly Nyame of Taraba state, Farouk Lawal, Abba Kyari and 4 of his officers, Retired AVM, and also 107 other inmates whose jail term is less than 3 months remaining and some who are innocent of the allegations on them, with few other good Senior Citizens.
“All remaining over 1300 inmates have escaped together with the terrorist that came to rescue them. Only 111 that refused to escape are remaining on the ground.
“Any other press release that tells you there are more than 111 inmates in Kuje prison today is completely false. All persons that volunteered to remain behind were counted by 2 am today and the total is 111 persons.
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“Expect the usual false press releases this morning from the security agencies trying to defend themselves and mislead Nigerians and the President. Don’t believe any of the security agencies that will start misleading the public with false press releases that it was an ‘attempted jailbreak of Kuje prison, Terrorists were repelled, Prisoners were re-arrested’. All are false press releases as usual to mislead Nigerians and the President to show that these major security agencies are working when they don’t have any capacity as they couldn’t detect or prevent these types of massive attacks and many others that happened in the recent past.
“The National Assembly or the presidency should send a strong delegation to come and count the people remaining in Kuje prison now which is less than 10 percent as over 90 percent of the Prisoners have escaped.
“The security architecture of Nigeria needs a major overhaul. How can over 300 terrorists plan big operations like this and attack a Prison facility inside Abuja, Federal Capital Territory and escape successfully with over 1300 rescued Prisoners without security agencies getting intelligence before the attack or even preventing the attack when it came?
“This operation was executed by over 300 terrorists shouting Allahu Akbar, and it lasted for 2hrs and 45 minutes successful and the reinforcement of men and equipment came more than 1 hour after the terrorists have gone successfully, that is about 4 hours after the operation was started.
“Nigeria is in big trouble, there is no prison or no place that is safe again with such numbers of terrorists with heavy weapons attacking everywhere they want.
“Terrible situation. All armed officers both Prison officers and soldiers escaped when the terrorists arrived and reinforcement came 4 hours later, that is over an hour after the terrorist have finished their operations and left with over 1300 rescued terrorists and other criminals.”
