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Round 440 inmates are on the run after a suspected raid by Islamist Boko Haram militants on a jail in Nigeria’s capital Abuja on Tuesday night time, an inside ministry official stated.
The raid, and a separate ambush on an advance convoy of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari – who was not current – heading to his hometown within the northern state of Katsina, highlights Nigeria’s going safety challenges, particularly in northern areas the place armed insurgents and gangs are rife.
Shuaib Belgore, everlasting secretary on the inside ministry, informed journalists exterior the Abuja jail – which has 900 inmates – {that a} safety officer was killed through the raid and three others had been injured.
He stated the suspected Boko Haram attackers got here for members who had been held within the jail.
“They got here particularly for his or her co-conspirators, however to be able to get them …, a few of them are within the normal (jail) inhabitants in order that they broke out and different folks in that inhabitants escaped as effectively however lots of them have returned,” Belgore stated.
A complete of 879 inmates fled, the jail service stated in a press release, with 443 nonetheless at giant and the remaining recaptured. It stated 4 inmates had been lifeless and 16 others injured.
“They’ve reported themselves to the police, some we’ve efficiently retrieved from the bushes the place they had been hiding,” Belgore stated.
Outdoors the jail, the charred stays of a number of autos with bullet holes had been seen on Wednesday morning, testifying to gunbattles within the neighborhood through the raid.
Buhari, on his strategy to his hometown Daura, close to the border with Niger, to arrange for the Muslim Eid al-Adha vacation, visited the jail, questioning its intelligence system. He demanded a complete report on the assault.
A helicopter hovered overhead as armed safety officers introduced in a shirtless inmate limping with a gaping wound on his leg, whereas one other injured inmate was carried into the jail.
Buhari was not within the convoy of vehicles carrying an advance workforce of safety guards, protocol and media officers heading to the president’s hometown through the assault.
“The attackers opened fireplace on the convoy from ambush positions however had been repelled by the army, police and safety personnel accompanying the convoy,” a presidential spokesman stated in a press release.
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