Bashir Magashi who is the Minister of Defence while outlining the details of the Kuje Prison attack on Wednesday has revealed that the 64 Boko Haram suspects and some other inmates linked to terrorism in Kuje Correctional Facility are missing.
Magashi had made this disclosure during a press conference at the facility in Abuja.
Some unknown gunmen had laid siege to the prison on Tuesday night.
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But Magashi said the attackers are Boko Haram insurgents and 64 of its members, who were inmates in the facility, cannot be found.
He said: “What actually happened, they came in their numbers and released some of the inmates. We are now trying to determine the kind of inmates they released.
“We are trying to see what we can do to see that all escapees within the prison accommodation are brought back to the prison yard.
“About 994 inmates, we have about 600 already inside now. Many people are being recaptured. The people who came to do this, from the records, belong to a particular group, from all indicators they are Boko haram.
“Presently we could not locate any of them. Currently, they are about 64 of them as inmates and we could not locate them.”
Terrorists on Tuesday assaulted the prisons in Kuje, in the Federal Capital Territory, and there was fear among the locals as they apparently abducted several prisoners from the correctional facility.
Residents raised concerns that the armed men bombed the jail facility.
A local who spoke to Newsmen had revealed that the shootings went on for the previous 20 minutes.
He claimed that the incident has sparked panic in the neighbourhood.
He said, ‘The shooting has been going on for almost 20 minutes now. I can’t tell you what is happening whether it is a robbery or not but we have been hearing that gunshots repeatedly around the area the prison is located. We are all scared as I speak to you. ‘
In a related development, gunmen suspected to be bandits have attacked the convoy of President Muhammadu Buhari in Katsina State.