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Two years after Nigeria recorded 15 jailbreaks across the country, the federal government is yet to track and recapture the over 3,828 escaped inmates roaming the country freely.
It was learned that between October 2020 and July 5, 2022, Nigeria has recorded incessant incidence of jailbreak across 11 states with the federal government failing to forestall the embarrassing situation in the country.
Records have it that between 2020 to December 2021, only 984 out of the 4,369 inmates who fled from various custodial centers in the country were recaptured, thereby leaving a total of 3,385 still at large.
This is in addition to the 443 yet to be recaptured inmates who fled after members of Boko Haram terrorists stormed the Kuje Custodial Centre (prison) Tuesday night, using high explosives and guns 69 of their members and 260 other inmates.
When contacted to furnish this paper with further information as to the additional number of recaptured escapees, the NCoS image maker, Abubakar Umar said that the service was still documenting details of freshly captured inmates but promised to release it to the public domain once that was concluded.
Only recently, the minister of interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola had at a media briefing organised by the Presidential Media Team at the State House in Abuja, confirmed that many recaptured inmates who escaped various custodial facilities following coordinated attacks by gunmen in many states were still on the run.
It was further gathered that these breakages has also culminated in the death of 38 persons (33 between 20-2021 and 5 in July,2022) including inmates, security operatives and some attackers, while 216 others either sustained minor or severe injuries, enough to require weeks of medical attention.
Meanwhile, security experts have expressed concerned that despite promising to ensure that the biodata of all inmates were harmonised with sister agencies, the Nigeria Financial Unit (NFIU), all banks and the INTERPOL to track all escaped inmates, no tangible result has been recorded to that effect.
A security expert, Mr. Thomas Adoye said, “It is sad that till date, the Nigeria Correctional Service has not been able to harmonise their information. They need to be told that it is also very important to have their fingerprints, pictures and other details to do so successfully.
Umar said, “The CG, Haliru Nababa is sparing no effort or resources in hunting down all the escapees and it is heart-warming that the integrated strategies are yielding favourable results. He expresses his deep appreciation to security agencies and patriotic Nigerians whose collaboration is facilitating the recovery exercise.
‘My boss has assured the public of his irrevocable commitment to bringing back all escapees to answer for their crimes. He therefore appeals that citizens should assist in achieving this task by visiting the Nigerian Correctional Service’s website https://corrections.gov.ng/escapees for the pictures of the escapees and alert the nearest security agency if they suspect or see any of them
It was reported that within the period under review, 9 of these incidents were successful with a total of 5,248 inmates (4,369 between 2020-2021 and 879 in July 2022) initially escaping from their attacked facilities The affected states include: Edo, Ondo, Lagos, Abia, Delta, Imo, Bauchi, Kano, Kogi, Oyo, Plataeu, and the FCT.
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