The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) websitefeatures a page for prison escapees, but this page contains insufficient information, FIJ has gathered.
On the page tagged ‘Escapees’, the NCoS features headshots of inmates who escaped its facilities, but FIJ found that all 11 pages contained images of only escaped inmates of the Kuje prison.
The page reads, “MSCC Kuje suffered a major blow on 5th of July 2022. An attack on the facility led to the escape of inmates out of which 64 are Boko Haram terrorists. Here is the list of the escapees; The first 64 are Boko Haram terrorists.”
This list neglects escapees from at least 10 jailbreaks between 2015 and July 5, 2022. It also fails to consider several other jailbreaks that happened after the Kuje incident.
On April 24, a heavy downpour brought down a fence in the Suleja correctional facility in Niger State. With this fence down, 118 inmates escaped.
Three months later, Assistant Controller of Corrections (ACC) Abubakar Umar, the Service Public Relations Officer (SPRO), asked the public to help the NCoS recapture 31 of those escapees.
A day earlier, the service put out an X post featuring images of the 31 wanted escapees. These names failed to appear on the NCoS website three months after the statement.
This post drew widespread criticism as Nigerians described it as unhelpful. One would have to zoom in to see details of the inmates, and even when one did so, the details remained blurry.
ZERO OFFENCES
During a tour of the website, FIJ observed odd details on the Kuje escapees’ pages. While some had their offences spelt out, other escapees had ‘Others’ published as their offences.
For some other escapees on page 1 of the list, FIJ found that the NCoS listed their offences as ‘0’.
The first name on the list; Daniel Mobe Samson, has zero offences listed. Abdul Yau, another escapee, also has zero offences listed.
FIJ called NCoS’ listed phone numbers on its website, but as of press time, one was switched off and the other two went unanswered. On Tuesday, FIJ shared its findings with Babatunde Alao, the Chief Press Secretary to Minister of Interior Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo.
Alao told FIJ via WhatsApp that it was possible “They might not have updated their website”.
FIJ earlier published an undercover report exposing how Nigeria’s police and correctional service did not keep adequate records of inmates, thereby making it possible for inmates to escape the country legally with no restrictions.
