Anthony Iwuoma
The Federal Government, on Thursday, disclosed that it had dispatched some jailbreakers “back to their maker”.
Speaking at the 64th session of the State House Ministerial Briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa in Abuja,
Rauf Aregbesola, the Minister of Interior, hinted to failed jailbreak without giving details.
This was coming after the attack on the Kuje Correctional Facility, in July, last year, resulting in the escape of over 400 inmates believed to be Boko Haram members.
According to the minister, fleeing inmates would have no place to hide forever because their biometrics have been stored permanently on the Nigeria Police database.
Asked to explain the root cause of the recurrent jailbreaks, Aregbesola said: “It is the season. I know you don’t want to hear it. Have we had what we are having in Nigeria today before? It is the season and it is global.
“Why do we have assassinations in America? Bad as it is, it is horrible, but in America, people get killed every second. In California, within the last week in America, 20 people have been killed. Did you ask why? It has nothing to do with technology; it could even be linked to climate change.
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“When things are hard, people who cannot manage their stability resort to those types of things. You can’t say there is no terrorism in Nigeria; we are managing it. You can’t say there is no banditry in Nigeria; we are managing it. It is because of the level of insecurity in Nigeria, and we are arising from it. It is as simple as that.
“We are doing our best to ensure that it will be difficult for anybody to attack our facilities. You may not know that some had attempted and we have sent them back to their maker.
“Take it; it is no longer game as usual. We are equipping our men to, on their own, defend those facilities. And those sister agencies are equally upping their capacity to protect and defend our facilities. And we’re improving the design of our facilities to make them almost impregnable.”
The minister regretted the recurrent attacks on the facilities but vowed that the government had determined to deal decisively with perpetrators..
“So, it’s sad; we are not happy that the facilities are being attacked. But it’s a function of the season and we will be deceiving ourselves if we don’t admit it. So we are up for it. Whoever attempts to dare our will, will not live to tell the story.
“As of today, there is no single inmate of our facilities that is not captured biometrically and that is the best we can do. We’re still working on DNA, another way to identify them.
“We have met with all agencies and institutions that can use the biometrics we have to trace and arrest them. They are doing their best. The most effective agency in capturing them is still the police force. They are doing wonderfully well. Like I would normally tell people, they can only run; they cannot hide.”