Nigeria confirms the escape of 64 Boko Haram prisoners from the assaulted prison in Abuja

Authorities reveal that security officers were removed from their posts 24 hours before the attack

July 6. (EUROPA PRESS) –

Nigerian Defense Minister Bashir Magashi said Wednesday that there are 64 Boko Haram terrorists who remain at large after the attack on Tuesday night at a prison in Kuje, located in the capital, Abuja.

The terrorists who are still at large were among the 600 prisoners who initially managed to escape from the prison when it was attacked on Tuesday night, “according to all indicators”, by Boko Haram, Magashi has said.

“Currently there are about 64 of them as inmates and we have not been able to locate them,” the Defense Minister confirmed to the press from the Kuje prison, where he has gone to assess the damage, reports the newspaper ‘Premium Times’.

Although it was said that 600 prisoners managed to escape from prison taking advantage of the confusion generated by the attack, later the Ministry of the Interior reported that about 300 managed to be captured by the security forces.

Regarding the attack, security sources have revealed that the guards in charge of the security of both the facilities and their surroundings were removed from their posts 24 hours before it occurred, according to the Nigerian newspaper ‘Vanguard’.

According to that same version, the troops and security members were withdrawn to other posts and their replacements did not arrive until the attack had already been perpetrated. For the moment, Boko Haram has not claimed responsibility for these events.

Insecurity in Nigeria, previously centered in the northeast of the country, has spread in recent months to other areas in the north and northwest, raising alarm bells about the possible expansion of terrorist and criminal networks.

The situation has reached such a point that some local authorities, such as those of Zamfara (northeast) have asked the civilian population to take up arms to defend themselves against all these groups, a measure that has been criticized by the central government, which describes it as as “a recipe for anarchy”.

In the last few hours, at least two people have also been injured in an attack by unidentified armed men on a convoy belonging to the president’s team, Muhammadu Buhari, in the state of Katsina, located in northern Nigeria.