President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed disappointment in Nigeria’s intelligence following the attacks on Kuje prison by suspected Boko-Haram terrorists.
The sect, in their numbers, stormed the medium-security prison on Tuesday night with high explosives and successfully released their co-conspirators along with over 600 other inmates.
A casualty has been recorded on the part of the security operatives while four dead bodies of escaped inmates were later accounted for.
In his usual tone, Mr Buhari condemned the attack after his visit to the scene on Wednesday. He questioned the competence of Nigeria’s security operatives.
The president, who departed for Dakar, Senegal, shortly after his visit, expressed shock at the courage of the attackers and raised questions about the ease at which the operation of non-state actors scaled through.
In a statement signed by his spokesperson, Garba Shehu, on Wednesday, Mr Buhari called for a comprehensive report on the shocking development.
“How did the defences at the prison fail to prevent the attack? How many inmates were in the facility? How many of them can you account for? How many personnel did you have on duty? How many of them were armed? Were there guards on the watchtower? What did they do? Does the CCTV work?
“I am disappointed with the intelligence system. How can terrorists organise, have weapons, attack a security installation and get away with it?” the president inquired.
In response to many Nigerians who opined that the president should have cancelled his scheduled trip to Senegal as a form of solidarity, his spokesperson said the government cannot stop working because of such an attack.
“The Presidency wishes to use this opportunity to react to mounting criticism of the trip to Dakar, Senegal by the President, and to stress that Governments don’t stop working because nations face terrorist threats.
“To cancel the trip to Senegal would mean that the terrorists are successful in calling the shots, something that no responsible government in the world will allow,” Mr Shehu said.