The Islamic States West Africa Province (ISWAP), an offshoot of Boko Haram, has released a damning video of its deadly attack on the Kuje Medium Security Custodial Centre, where over 600 inmates were freed from the prison.
The terrorist group Tuesday night attacked the Kuje prison, which is about 43 kilometres southwest of downtown Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, releasing scores of its fighters detained at the facility.
In the 28 seconds video footage, obtained by Peoples Gazette on Wednesday night, the terror group was shooting sporadically at the facility using Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) and deploying Improvised Explosive Devices (IED), to raze the properties including vehicles while shouting “Allah Akbar”.
Spokesman of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Abubakar Umar, while confirming the attack, said the attack was repelled. Residents of the area, however, said the insurgents operated for close to three hours without any effective resistance by state forces.
Bashir Magashi, the Minister of Defence, had earlier confirmed that 64 members of the Boko-Haram sect from the medium security prison, escaped during the invasion.
“Presently we could not locate any of them. Currently, they are about 64 of them as inmates and we could not locate them”, Mr Magashi told journalists.
ISWAP release a video of the attack on Kuje Prison in Abuja pic.twitter.com/OW2HmCadgJ
— Murtala (@Murtalaibin) July 6, 2022
Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari, who was heading to Senegal for a regional economic summit, had on Wednesday afternoon, stooped by the scene of the violent attack to access the situation.
He expressed his disappointment in the nations intelligence community for failing to intercept such a large-scale assault on a critical establishment.
The violent strike on Kuje prison is the latest in the series of attacks on correctional facilities in the country, which comes less than a year after suspected arsonists invaded the Jos prison and freed many inmates in the facility.
