Minister orders security beef up at Kuje, other prisons

The Minister of Interior, Lt.-Gen.

The minister gave the order on Monday in Abuja shortly after an on-the-spot assessment of the Kuje prisons where two inmates had escaped on Friday.

Dambazau, who was taken round the prison facility by the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS), Ahmed Jafaru and other prison officials, expressed dismay at the ugly incident.

He said that he had ordered for detailed investigation into the matter and vowed to get to the root of the matter, while the hunt for the escaped inmates continues.

The minister decried the poor state of the prison and recalled that he had observed some security lapses around the prison the last time he visited and called for remediation.

`` The last time I was here I noticed some security gap in the prison, I made my observation then with the former CG with the present controller prison and I notice the security gap and I told them precisely what to do but unfortunately this has occurred, he said.

He said he will not preempt the outcome of the investigations but expressed worry on some of the security lapses around the facility.

``Two prisoners escaped and especially these are prisoners who are awaiting trial for murder. So, this is a very serious issue that I cannot be happy about,’’ he added.

He assured that the present government was working round the clock to rehabilitate Nigerian Prisons and make it a true rehabilitation centres for inmates like it’s done in developed countries.