TheCable

Rauf Aregbesola, minister of interior, says 446 inmates of the Abolongo medium custodial centre have been rearrested.

Aregbesola said this on Sunday during a visit to the facility, following an attack on the centre on Friday night.

“Heavily armed” persons invaded the facility and killed two security operatives, while another volunteer with the Oyo state security network, codenamed Amotekun, is currently in critical condition.

As of Saturday afternoon, 575 inmates were said to still be at large.

According to a statement by Sola Fasure, spokesperson to Aregbesola, the minister said 69 of the inmates never left the facility.

He also said the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) is collaborating with other security agencies — including Interpol — to ensure that all the inmates who escaped are recaptured.

“As at the last count, 446 of the escapees have been recaptured leaving 392 still at large. We want to assure Nigerians that the service has an updated database of the escapees which includes their biometrics. We are sharing the database with all security agencies in the country including Interpol, so those who escape our recapture efforts can be nabbed,” he said.

“To those on the run, be assured you have nowhere to hide. You can run, but you can’t hide. We’ll fish you out! We are publishing details of those who escaped in the mass media so the public can assist in that effort.”

Also speaking, Haliru Nababa, comptroller-general of the NCS, said efforts are being put in place to forestall future attacks.

“The NCS has so far prevented internal jailbreaks in the country. What we have reoccurring in recent times are external attacks on our facilities. We have been retraining our officers not just on securing those in lawful custody, but preventing external attacks,” he said.

“We are collaborating with other security agencies in the country to make such attacks near impossible and where they do occur, the attackers will have not to live to regret it.”