The Ghana Immigration Service has announced that about 64 Nigerian terrorist group, Boko Haram who escaped from in Abuja are likely to be hiding in Ghana.
The inmates at the Nigeria Prison at Kuje near Abuja were freed by the Islamic extremist rebels and are currently on the run and believed to be hiding in Ghana.
Last Tuesday night, nearly 900 inmates escaped in a jailbreak at the Kuje Maximum Security Prison in Abuja.
According to reports, about 443 of the 879 escapees are still missing, Umar Abubakar, a spokesman for the Nigerian Correctional Service said, while hundreds of others have either been recaptured or turned themselves in at police stations.
Officials will “track all fleeing inmates and return them to custody,” said Abubakar.
Due to that the Ghana Immigration Service in a statement urged the public to be on alert and report to the security agencies in case they identify any strangers around in town across the country.
The reports intercepted by DGN Online indicated that it is believed that the Jihadist group Boko Haram is behind the attack which saw the use of high-end explosives and guns, that freed all 64 Boko Haram-linked inmates at the prison and are among the escapees who are still on the run.
“Considering current migration trends of Nigerians within the sub-region, it is likely most of the escapees will attempt to enter Ghana through both approved and unapproved routes”.
The Deputy Comptroller-General, Laud O. Affrifah, who issued the statement said “I have been directed to inform you to institute stringent measures at all points of Entry and intensify patrols to deter and intercept all escapees who will attempt to infiltrate the country”.
After the prison break out, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari visited the prison where senior officials showed him around the facility.
He then tweeted he was “saddened” by the attack and “disappointed” with Nigeria’s intelligence system.
“How can terrorists organize, have weapons, attack a security installation and get away with it?” Buhari asked.
The “very determined” rebels attacked the Kuje maximum prison in Abuja on Tuesday night with “very high-grade explosives,” killing one guard on duty, according to Shuaib Belgore, permanent secretary of Nigeria’s Ministry of Interior.
Explosions and gunfire were heard at about 10 p.m. in the Kuje area when the attackers arrived and forced their way into the prison through a hole created by the blasts.
The Islamic extremist rebels who attacked the prison have waged an insurgency in the country’s northeast for over a decade. Their attack on the detention facility freed many of their members who are inmates, prison officials said.
The Kuje maximum security prison had nearly 1,000 inmates including 64 suspects of the Boko Haram extremist group all of whom have escaped, said Maj. Gen. Bashir Salihi Magashi, Nigeria’s Minister of Defense.
He told reporters that security officials on the ground did “their best” to prevent the jailbreak. “We are trying to see what we can do to ensure that all escapees are brought back,” he said.
As of last Wednesday morning, bullet shells lay scattered around the prison premises while helicopters hovered over the Kuje area as security agents combed nearby bushes in search of escapees. Several vehicles were razed during the late-night shootout.
Some recaptured inmates lay on the ground by the prison entrance near the bodies of those who died in the attack.
The Abuja jailbreak occurred around the same time that gunmen launched a daring attack on an advance security convoy preparing for the visit of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in the northwest Katsina state.
Those attackers “opened fire on the convoy from ambush positions but were repelled by the military,” a presidential spokesman said.
Nigeria’s jihadi rebels and other armed groups have carried out several jailbreaks in the country’s northeast in recent years, but this is the first in the capital city in recent years.
Below are the attached pictures with the names of the escaped Boko Haram suspects:
– BY Daniel Bampoe