Pointedly, the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, has said he will not succumb to calls for him to resign over repeated attacks on correctional facilities in the country.
In the last few months, four Correctional facilities in Imo, Kogi, Oyo, and Plateau States have been attacked and at least 2000 inmates, especially those awaiting trial, set free. In Owerri Prison alone, over 1800 prisoners were set freee in April. After that, from September, it became a monthly affair.
Many have read different meanings to the invasions by gunmen, but that of the Jos Medium Custodial Centre poses a puzzle because the facility is surrounded by other facilities of security agencies. A Google map post sent across social media platforms, as well as tweets, debunked official statements by the Police and the Nigeria Correction Service (NCoS).
Others suggested that the Jos centre housed insurgents from Yobe State, but this could not be verified. Their colleagues were said to be those who broke them and others out; but until government releases details of investigations, these stories remain unsubstantiated speculations.
Aregbesola told State House correspondents on Wednesday at the end of the Federal Executive Council meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja: “As to whether it (the jail attacks and breaks) calls for my resignation, I still don’t see any need for that because it is not for lack of preparedness that the attacks were successful.”
In Kabba Medium Custodial Centre in Kogi State on September 12, two security operatives died during the attack, that led to the escape of 240 inmates. A handful have been nabbed.
A month later at the Medium Security Custodial Centre in the Abolongo area of Oyo State, hundreds of inmates awaiting trial escaped from the correctional facility on October 22.
A month later, the security of the Jos Custodial Centre was compromised by gunmen who freed over 200, leading to the death of security operatives and an inmate. However, Aregbesola says he is not under any pressure to resign.
According to him, the protracted security situation in the country and inadequate dispensation of justice are among the factors responsible for the vulnerability of prison officials in the face of attacks.
“Even the men in uniform, the hazard of their job could lead to their death,” the minister said. “But none of them wanted to die.
“We are upping our game and we will not allow any such opportunistic attack and even make it impossible. That is what the state must do.”
Aregbesola, suted the courage of security operatives who died and assured that the Federal Government was making efforts to step up security around the correctional centers.