Security operatives begin manhunt for missing 300 Kuje prison inmates

At least 300 inmates of the Kuje prison including over 60 Boko Haram suspects are missing after a raid on the correctional centre by gunmen on Tuesday night.

Security personnel including soldiers and police are currently on the trail of those yet to return to the prison after the jailbreak, according to an official of the Federal Ministry of Interior.

The raid on the prison, and a separate ambush on an advance convoy of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari – who was not present – heading to his Daura hometown in the Katsina State jolted the citizens as the latest of the Nigeria’s security challenges, especially in northern regions where armed insurgents and gangs are rife.

Shuaib Belgore, permanent secretary at the interior ministry, told journalists outside the Abuja prison – which has 900 inmates – that a security officer was killed during the raid and three others were injured.

He said the suspected Boko Haram attackers came for members who were held in the prison.

“They came specifically for their co-conspirators, but in order to get them…, some of them are in the general (prison) population so they broke out and other people in that population escaped as well but many of them have returned,” Belgore said.

He added that more than 600 inmates had fled but half had been recaptured and a manhunt was continuing.

“They have reported themselves to the police, some we have successfully retrieved from the bushes where they were hiding, and (as of) now we have retrieved about 300 out of about 600 that got out of the jail cells,” he said.

Outside the prison, the charred remains of several vehicles with bullet holes were seen on Wednesday morning, attesting to gunbattle in the vicinity during the raid.