Former Chief Security adviser to late Military Head of State, General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al’Mustapha, and political stakeholders in Kuje Area Council have blamed lack of modern surveillance equipment, laxity and negligence on the part of authorities in charge of Kuje Medium Security Custodial Centre for the recent attack on the facility which resulted in the escape of many detainees including hardened convicts.
Al’Mustapha, who spoke during a Radio Nigeria phone-in programme monitored in Abuja, said it was strategically wrong and a high security risk to keep more than fifty Boko Haram fighters in one location for too long without proper supervision, re-programming or speedy trial in competent courts.
The former military officer, who was once detained at the Kuje correctional facility, explained that while at the prison, he noticed that the Boko Haram ex-fighters exhibited abnormal behavioural characteristics associated with frequent use of hard drugs and bad indoctrination.
He said it would have been better for the nation to establish different detention facilities for Boko Haram suspects who, he described as mentally unstable, irritable and always withdrawn at the prison.
On their part, two former chairmen of Kuje Area Council expressed concern over the ease with which armed terrorists successfully invaded the Medium Security Custodial Centre to attack and free several detainees without being caught or stopped.
In an interview with newsmen, the two former chairmen, Alhaji Abdullahi Galadima and Chief Danladi Etsu Zingh called on the federal government to beef-up security within the council to forestall any further ugly incident from escaped prisoners as residents of the council now live in fear of the safety.
Etsu Zingh described the attack as an embarrassment to the government, Galadima and the nation but Galadima, the immediate past Chairman of Kuje said residents of the council now living in fear of another attack from the escaped prisoners or their members due to the porous nature of the security in the council.
The stakeholders appealed for a thorough review of the security plans in place in the area council to help authorities improve on the arrangements where necessary.
