Kuje attack: Our security system has failed — Senate

The Senate yesterday took a swipe at the management of Kuje Prisons over the unhindered attack on it in the early hours of Wednesday by terrorists of Islamic State for West African Province, ISWAP, saying it speaks volumes about the failure of the country’s security architecture.

The Senate, while describing the incident as unfortunate and disappointing, cited insider conspiracy, even as it expressed its total displeasure over the non-functional Closed Circuit Television, CCTV, at the prison which incapacitated the management and security operatives from preventing and responding appropriately to the attack that led to the escape of over 800 inmates.

Like the Senate, angry reactions from the Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, its counterpart in Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Social Democratic Party, African Democratic Congress, ADC; Middle Belt Forum, MBF, and the Pan-Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, greeted the terrorist attack.

Speaking, yesterday, in Abuja when he led a delegation of the leadership of the Senate to assess the level of attack on the prison, President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan, said an attack on the Kuje Medium Security Prison could only have been possible with the collaboration of insiders in the nation’s prison system.

Lawan, who expressed anger over what happened in Kuje, was with his Deputy, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, and other principal officers.

Lawmakers on the Senate delegation, which also had some members of the Committee on National Security and Intelligence, were conducted around the facility by the Controller-General of Prisons, Haliru Nababa.

They wondered how 300 ISWAP operatives accessed the premises of the prison on foot, forced their way into the various cells and released over 800 inmates for over an hour without any counter-offensive from security personnel on the ground.