KUJE ATTACK: Aregbesola Inspects Kuje Custodial Facility, Stresses on Inter-Agency Cooperation To Forestall Future Attacks

Rauf Aregbesola

“We have a world class facility here by any standard. I am disappointed with the level of defense. We had enough men to protect this facility but unfortunately they couldn't hold their position effectively for defense and that was the reason for the breach.” Interior Minister.

 

Following the attack on the Kuje Custodial Facility, the Honourable Minister of the Interior Affairs Ministry, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has tasked security agencies in the country on the need to cooperate with one another in order to forestall future attacks on public infrastructure and other national assets.

Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola stated this on Friday when he led the management of the Ministry of Interior and agencies under its supervision, on an inspection visit to the Kuje Custodial Centre, attacked by gunmen, suspected to be terrorists.

“There is a platoon of the Nigerian Army with sophisticated weapons, elite men of the Nigeria Police Force, Officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence, and armed officers of the Nigerian Correctional Service on ground, at the time of the attack.

“We have a world class facility here by any standard. I am disappointed with the level of defense. We had enough men to protect this facility but unfortunately they couldn't hold their position effectively for defense and that was the reason for the breach,” the Minister stated.

The Minister, in a statement issued and signed by his media adviser, Sola Fasure and made available to journalists, further reiterated his earlier position on declaring all custodial centres across the country, as red zones. Whoever attempts it will not live to tell the story. He stated.

“Now my position is so clear, I have declared since April last year that, all our facilities are red zones and that whoever attempts an attack may not live to tell the story. I still maintain this. 

“Kuje is the most fortified in the country, if fortification for security is the determinant of whether it is medium or maximum. It is medium by size but maximum by the security there. We have a platoon of security officers deployed here. We have the high grade of military and police and other security forces deployment for protection but strangely, something happened most of which I cannot say on camera. I want to believe those who escaped can only run but cannot hide,” Aregbesola reiterated.

Regretting the attack, the Minister stated that, “what we are experiencing as a nation was the fall out of the success of the war in the Northeast.

“It is very regrettable that this happened. Let us put it in context. The nation was experiencing asymmetric warfare. Yes, the insurgents have been degraded in the North East of Nigeria. We have 61,000 of them in our custody in the Northeast; the effect of the effectiveness itself in degrading them in the Northeast is what we are experiencing. 

“As sad as it is, we must put behind us whatever is happening now in the context of the asymmetric warfare unleashed on the nation by this criminal elements and we will rise to it, that's the assurance I want to give to Nigerians, as I said if deployments is the basis of security, Kuje was as at Tuesday heavily fortified,” the minister stated.

On the tour were the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior, Dr. Shuaibu Belgore; Controller General, Nigerian Correctional Service, Haliru Nababa; Commandant General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Abubakar Audi; Director, Joint Services in the Ministry of Interior, Mr. Peter Egbodo, amongst other dignitaries.