… AS BUHARI ORDERS SECURITY CHIEFS TO UNRAVEL CAUSE OF THE ATTACK
The Federal Government has said that the attack on the Kuje Correctional Centre was successful because the the terrorists attacked the facility in large number with a superior fire power.
The Government admitted also,
the weak security and intelligence network which sided the raid carried out by the members of the Boko Haram group,
The Minister of Police Affairs, Mohammed Dingyadi, disclosed in Friday, while answering questions from State House Correspondents on the outcome of the emergency National Security Council meeting presided over by President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said that President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the service chiefs to ensure that adequate measures were taken not only to investigate what happened at Kuje prisons, but also to take steps to end the reoccurrence of such incidence in the future.
Dingyadi defended the security personnel deployed to the facility, stressing that they did their best to repell the attack but were subdued by the superior weaponry of the terrorists.
He acknowledged the fact that for about 72 hours after the attack and with helicopters deployed to comb the environment, no criminal was arrested.
“You see these kind of things.They happen. And I want to assure you that all those who are supposed to play a role in ensuring that the attack is neutralized did the best that they could to neutralize it
“I think what helped them (terrorists) was the number of people they came with and the superior weapons that they came with
“And because nobody anticipated it, the few people who are there guarding the place could not withstand the number that they came with. I think that was what happened
“Like I said, this investigation is still going on. You will only do good to allow the investigation to continue and maybe by the time they finish, you will be able to get the details of what actually happened and why it happened.” He stated.
According to Dingyadi, some of the terrorists were killed.
“Some of them have been killed. But I can’t give you the number and I don’t know the number. Because like they use to do, whenever one of them is killed, they take the corpse away and you cannot know the number of people who have been killed but definitely quite a number of them were killed and many of them runway with bullet wounds.”
The Minister further said the meeting with the President Buhari was for the reviewed of the the security situation in the country, as it affects the Kuje jail attack.
He stated that the security issues of the banditry attack in Katsina, as well as the various attacks on Shiroro local government Area of of Niger State, formed part of the agenda.
According to him, the President was concerned about the recent developments.
“Mr. president is surprised that what happened in Kuje actually took place inspite of all the security arrangement that has been made to ensure that such an incident does not happen.
“We are assuring the nation and Nigerians in general that arrangements have been made to ensure that full investigations are carried out to ensure that a repeat of these incidences will not occur.
“The service chiefs have been given very clear directives to ensure that adequate measures are taken not only to investigate what happened, but also to take steps to forestall the reoccurrence of such incidences.
“We call on Nigerians to continue to support the federal government, in its effort to ensure that we fight criminalities to finish and to ensure that this country is brought back to normalcy in a more secure and a more peaceful atmosphere.
“We are moving toward 2023, government is committed to ensuring that there’s peace, tranquility to ensure a very credible and a peaceful and transparent elections in Osun State come early next week.” He said.
