Aregbesola  orders officers to shoot any one attempting to attack prison

The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, on Monday, ordered prisons officers to shoot dead anybody who attempts to attack any correctional centre in the country.

Inspecting the facility at the Agodi Custodial Centre, Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, Aregbesola stated that any attempt to attack correctional centres should be a suicide attempt and perpetrators must not be allowed to live to tell the story.

He warned the offcers to make it impossible for anyone to penetrate the facility because it is a red zone, adding that any attack on any correctional centre is an attack on the state and such must never be allowed again.

“The most important thing is the security impregnability of this facility. Make this facility impregnable. It is a red zone, dangerous zone. Whoever attempts to breach the security here is already dead. He must not live to tell the story. Other people will tell his or her story.

“Any effort to breach our facility is not acceptable. Don’t shoot to injure, shoot to kill. Don’t shoot to disable, shoot to kill. This is a total embodiment of the state to guarantee the security of the people.

“We will do our best regarding your welfare to ensure effective service. I must commend your work for not recording any case of COVID-19 in your facility. But most importantly, you must be effective in preventing the penetration of this facility. You must have the capacity to repel viciously any attempt to penetrate this facility”, the Minister stated.

At a recent Ministerial Press Briefing at the Aso Villa, Abuja, he said 4,860 inmates of the Nigerian correctional centres have escaped from those facilities between 2020 and 2021 alone following successful jailbreaks in Benin, Owerri, and Oyo, among others.

The Minister disclosed that only 954 of that number have been rearrested. That was before the recent jailbreak at the Jos Medium Security Custodial Centre, which resulted in nine fatalities and escape of 252 inmates. The 252 on the loose are apart from the 10 rearrested.