Heavily armed men believed to be terrorists on Tuesday night attacked the Kuje Medium Custodial Centre in Abuja, the nation’s capital with bombs in an apparent move to gain entry into the facility and free some of their members.
A high calibre bomb had first gone off at about 10:25pm followed by a second and third blasts as well as sporadic gunshots that threw residents into panic mode.
It was learnt that the Nigerian Correctional Service NCoS had earlier received intelligence reports that one of its facilities could come under attacks.
A prison source also told PREMIUM TIMES that the State Security Service had “earlier today (Tuesday)” warned of an impending attack on Kuje prison. The source, however, could not describe the level of measures put in place to forestall the attack.
However, no official statement had been released as at the time of filing this report.
Dangerous criminals, including apprehended Boko Haram terrorists, are held in the prison, which also houses high profile public officers standing trial or already convicted.
Kuje has a capacity of about 550 but currently detains about 1000 inmates, a prison source said.