Nigeria prison break frees almost 900 inmates

Extremists suspected of escape plan as 400 remain on the run from Kuje maximum prison in Abuja

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  Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari inspects Kuje prison, after gunmen released Boko Haram fighters held at the prison in Abuja, Nigeria. Reuters

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  Recaptured inmates being taken back to Kuje maximum security prison. AP

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  A burnt-out vehicle at the entrance to the prison after the attack by gunmen in Kuje. Reuters

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  Inmates who escaped during the attack by suspected Boko Haram fighters wait after being captured and returned to the prison. Reuters

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  An explosive ordnance disposal officer picks up spent bullet casings at the prison in Kuje, after the raid. Reuters

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  A police officer after the attack on the prison. AFP

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  The main prison door was destroyed during the attack. Reuters

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  Suspected Boko Haram gunmen used explosives to blast their way into then prison near the capital, Abuja, and freed hundreds of extremists. AFP

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  The brazen attack on the outskirts of Abuja came hours after an ambush on a presidential security convoy in the north-west. AFP

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  At least 600 inmates escaped and about 300 were recaptured, the authorities said. AP

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  Recaptured inmates inside a prison vehicle. AFP

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  Recaptured inmates are seen inside the Kuje prison. AFP

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  A forensics officer examines bullet casings from the scene. AFP

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  Prison officials stand near a gate destroyed with explosives by several gunmen during a prison break attack at the medium-security prison in Kuje, near the capital Abuja, Nigeria July 6, 2022. REUTERS / Afolabi Sotunde

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  A security officer with a sniffer dog stands at the medium-security prison in Kuje. Reuters

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  Officers stand guard outside the Kuje prison. AP

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  A police officer walks beside a burnt prison vehicle. AFP

About 900 inmates escaped jail in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, with officials on Wednesday blaming the attack on Boko Haram extremists.

At least 443 of the 879 who fled were missing, Umar Abubakar, a spokesman for the Nigerian Correctional Service said.

Hundreds of others have either been recaptured or surrendered at police stations.

Officials will “track all fleeing inmates and return them to custody,” said Mr Abubakar.

The “very determined” rebels attacked the Kuje maximum prison in Abuja on Tuesday night with “very high-grade explosives,” killing a guard, according to Shuaib Belgore, permanent secretary of Nigeria’s Ministry of Interior.

He said the suspected Boko Haram attackers came for members who were held at the prison.

“They came specifically for their co-conspirators, but in order to get them …, some of them are in the general (prison) population so they broke out and other people in that population escaped as well, but many of them have returned,” Mr Belgore said.

“They have reported themselves to the police, some we have successfully retrieved from the bushes where they were hiding,” Mr Belgore said.

The Kuje maximum security prison held 1,000 inmates, including 64 suspects of the Boko Haram extremist group all of whom have escaped, said Maj Gen Bashir Salihi Magashi, Nigeria’s Minister of Defence.

He said that security officials on the ground did “their best” to prevent the jailbreak. “We are trying to see what we can do to ensure that all escapees are brought back,” he said.

Four inmates were dead and 16 others injured, authorities said.

Recaptured inmates sit inside a prison vehicle in Abuja, Nigeria, on July 6. Boko Haram gunmen are suspected of attacking the Kuje Medium Prison. EPA

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday briefly visited the prison, where the burnt wreck of a bus and cars marked the scene of the attack, and yellow police tape was stretched across part of the prison perimeter.

Explosions and gunfire were heard at about 10pm in the Kuje area when the attackers arrived and forced their way into the prison through a hole created by the blasts.

The extremist rebels who attacked the prison have waged an insurgency in the country’s north-east for more than a decade.

The Abuja jailbreak occurred around the same time that gunmen attacked a security convoy preparing for the visit of Mr Buhari to north-western Katsina state.

Those attackers “opened fire on the convoy from ambush positions but were repelled by the military,” a presidential spokesman said.

Thousands break free from Nigeria’s prisons

Nigeria’s extremists and other armed groups have carried out several jailbreaks in the country’s north-east in recent years, but this is the first in the capital city in recent years.

In 2021, more than 2,500 inmates were freed in three jailbreaks. At least 4,307 have escaped from Nigeria’s prisons since 2017, Lagos-based online newspaper The Cable reported this month, based on media reports.

Most of Nigeria’s recent jailbreaks seem unconnected although the attacks are carried out in a similar manner using explosives, according to security analysts.

A large number of those who have escapedwere awaiting trial. Nigerian prisons hold 70,000 inmates but only about 20,000 have been convicted, according to government data.