Aregbesola, under his watch, Nigeria has witnessed 18 jailbreaks, accused #EndSARS protesters for Prison breaks

The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, has fingered the #EndSARS protests as prompting attacks on correctional facilities in the country.

This was revealed in a press statement by his Media Adviser, Sola Fasure, from his visit to the Kirikiri Maximum and Minimum correctional centres in Lagos on Tuesday. While boasting that jailbreaks attempted by inmates have not been successful at any of the facilities, he expressed concerns that there had been more attacks from the outside on correctional facilities since the #EndSARS protests of October 2020.

He said, “So far, no jailbreak by inmates has been successful, we have successfully quelled all of them.

He continued, “What we have recurring since the #EndSars protests of October 2020, has been a mass of people attacking our facilities from outside and setting the inmates free”.

“However, I have now directed the Controller General of the NCOS to double his efforts on intelligence gathering to fortify and prevent breaches to the Custodial Centres beyond the use of arms and force.”

No fewer than 4, 443 inmates are on the run after nine successful jailbreaks in the last seven years. Aregbesola had stated in December last year that 3,906 inmates were still on the run. With 443 having escaped on Tuesday night, the figure is now about 4, 443.

Also, 18 jailbreak incidents have been reported since the commencement of the regime of the President Muhammadu Buhari with nine successful attempts.