The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has denied claims that prisoners who fled the Medium Security Custodial Centre, Kuje, during the attack took cash (both local and international currencies) from their fellow prisoners.
This was confirmed in a statement released on Saturday in Abuja by the Service Public Relations Officer (SPRO), Mr. Abubakar Umar.
According to certain media reports, employees at the Kuje Custodial Center were unable to account for N82 million and $36,000 in cash that belonged to convicts.
InsightnaijaTV reports that a large group of terrorists bombed their way into the facility on July 5 in a daring attack.
879 prisoners were released, at least 64 of them had terrorism-related charges hanging over their heads.
However, Umar emphasized that the organization’s staff did not maintain such huge funds in custodial facilities.
He claimed that the need for clarification had grown because of the false narrative that had been created by the unreliable information and the attention that had been diverted from dealing with the issues at hand.
He said that all of the inmates’ cash that had been given to the custodial center’s administrators was secure and unharmed.
“There is an existing instruction from the Controller General , NCoS, Mr Haliru Nababa that all officers superintending custodial centres must not keep huge sums in the facility,” he said.
Nababa reportedly used all available means and resources to track down every fugitive, according to Umar.
He continued by remarking how encouraging it was to see positive outcomes from the integrated tactics.
Nababa thanked the security services and zealous Nigerians whose cooperation had aided in the retrieval.
He gave the public the assurance that he will bring back every escapee to face justice for their crimes.
The head of NCoS made an appeal to the public to help with the assignment by visiting the NCoS website, https://corrections.gov.ng/escapees, to look at the images of the escapees and notify the local security agency about potential suspects.
