A report on the prisoners who escaped from the Kuje Medium Security Custodial Center in 2022 was requested by the House of Representatives on Wednesday. The Nigerian Correctional Service was asked to provide it.
The House instructed its Committees on Interior, Police Affairs, and Reformatory Institutions to communicate with the leaders of the pertinent security agencies in order to compile an extensive report on the whereabouts of the fugitive prisoners.
The committees must report their findings to the House for additional legislative action within six weeks.
The resolution passed by the House was the result of a motion presented by Emmanuel Ukpong-Udo, a member representing Akwa Ibom State’s Ikono/Ini Federal Constituency.
The July 2022 attack on the Kuje Custodial Center, which resulted in the escape of numerous Boko Haram suspects, was attributed to the Islamic State in West African Province.
Leading the argument, Ukpong-Udo stated that, “On July 5, 2022, a jailbreak in Abuja’s Kuje Medium Custodial Facility resulted in 879 inmates, including 64 terrorists from Boko Haram, fleeing, with 422 remaining unrecoverable or recaptured by security agencies.”
The Nigeria Correctional Service is required to provide a thorough report on inmates as well as techniques for tracing offenders and inmates using the database, the House further stated.
The House expressed worry that, given the number of crimes that go unreported every day and the lack of leads, the presence of law-abiding residents amid 350 escapees who have committed a variety of offenses could be a security risk.
The fact that the escapees are thriving in new places a year later, blending in and maybe carrying out their illegal acts undetected, is concerning, it was noted, and it is imperative that appropriate procedures be put in place to locate and capture those people right away.
