One hundred and nineteen prisoners have escaped from the Suleja Custodial Centre, in Niger State.
Spokesperson of the FCT Command of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Samson Duza, disclosed this on Thursday.
The FCT Command is in charge of Kuje and Suleja Medium Security Custodial Centres in Abuja and Niger.
Duza said the inmates escaped through a destroyed fence at the Suleja facility following a heavy rainfall on Wednesday night.
According to him, the downpour has also wreaked havoc on the surrounding buildings and part of the custodial facility, including its perimeter fence.
”This gave way to the escape of 119 inmates of the facility.
He said the service had immediately activated its recapturing mechanisms, in conjunction with sister security agencies, adding that “but with the help of sister agencies, we have recaptured 10 of them and taken them into custody, while we are in hot chase to recapture the others.”
Duza said the Service was mindful that many of its facilities were built during the colonial era, and had become old and weak.
He said in view of this, the service was making frantic efforts to see that all ageing facilities gave way for modern ones.”This is evidenced in the ongoing construction of six 3,000-capacity ultra-modern custodial centres in all the geo-political zones in Nigeria.
‘‘This also includes the ongoing reconstruction and renovation of existing ones,” he said.
