EDITORIAL: Attack On Kuje Prisons And Failure Of Security

Last Tuesday’s attack by terrorists on Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja during which hundreds of inmates including  convicted terror elements escaped may have come as a surprise to President Muhammadu Buhari and his cabinet members but certainly not a surprise to discerning Nigerians who have been conscious of the security situation in the country.

While the likes of Nigeria’s Information Minister, Alhaji Lai Mohammed would continue to live in illusion that Boko Haram terrorists have been degraded technically, even with the escalation of terrorism and banditry in the North of the country, many Nigerians knew quite well that the Federal Government was thriving on deceit.

The Buhari administration has refused to do the needful by dealing decisively with the terror elements captured at various times by Nigeria’s fighting forces.

Repeatedly, concerned Nigerians have spoken out condemning the kid-glove with which captured terrorists were being treated. Several  voices have often called on the administration not to take the so called repentant Boko Haram elements as true repentant  but often times, religious and ethnic sentiments were wiped up, and the elements ended up being integrated into the civil society.  Some were even said to have been enlisted into the Nigeria armed forces. Hence our innocent soldiers have often been ambushed unknowingly due to information squealed to the terrorists or bandits by their colleagues already in the system.

This was ostensibly one of the reasons some hundreds of soldiers unceremoniously disengaged from the armed forces in the last two years because their morale had been bashed.

That President Buhari could blame the Kuje attack on failure of intelligence remains pitiable in the face of the  obvious nonchalance   and levity with which the administration has handed serious security issues.  The Department of State Service (DSS) was said to have hinted of plans to attack the Kuje Correctional facilities but in less than 24 hours to the attack, soldiers attached to the facility were reportedIy withdrawn.

Last Saturday, five days after the attack, Defense Headquarters in a statement denied the allegation of having been tipped by the DSS concerning the attack. The denial which came as a refuttal of the allegation contained in a video produced by a one time Minister of Aviation, Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode did not however specify in clear terms what gave room for the failure of security agencies including the military to nip the attack in the bud even though it is not the statutory duty of the military to protect Correctional Centres.

That Kuje Correctional facilities could be attacked with ease and inmates freed just like what happened in Owerri, Imo State and Benin, Edo State last year is a clear testimony that the present administration has been overwhelmed by the terror elements in our midst.

In a sane clime, the President would have either resigned or been impeached for inability to perform a statutory function of protecting the citizenry.  Regrettably, such a culture is foreign in Nigeria and rather than pass the buck to the president, some primitive cheerleaders are making excuses for him.

This is the time for President Buhari to publicly admit that his administration has failed Nigerians and apologize to Nigerians for the collosal failure in security parlance.