Abolongo prisonbreak: 446 of 907 escapees recaptured – FG


The federal government has said that 446 out of 907 escapees from the Abolongo custodial centre in Oyo state have been recaptured, whilst 69 never left the facility.

Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, revealed this Sunday while making an inspection visit to the facility in Oyo, Oyo state.

In a statement made available to Blueprint in Abuja, the Minister vowed to pursue and recapture all inmates who escaped from the prison.

“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 have an updated database of the escapees which includes their biometrics. We are sharing the database with all security agencies in the country, including the Interpol, so those who escaped our recapture efforts can be nabbed.

“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,” the Minister reiterated.

On the effort to rebuild the damaged part of the facility, the Minister noted that he has directed the NCoS, to immediately begin remediation work.

“I have instructed the CG of NCoS to immediately begin the reconstruction of the damaged parts of the building. We hope to make the facility better secured and more habitable for the inmates.

Also speaking during the inspection, the Controller General of the Nigeria Correctional Service, NCoS, Haliru Nababa, mni, noted that so far, the service has successfully prevented internal jailbreaks in all her facilities.

“The NCoS have 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 prevent external attacks.

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

On the instruction given by the Minister of Interior to immediately begin remediation work on the facility, CG Nababa noted that work has begun already.

“As you can see, workers are already on site fixing damaged doors, broken windows and mounting walls. Before the end of today, work would have been completed on it,” Nababa stated.