Rauf Aregbesola, Minister of Interior, said that around 3000 convicts are still at large following recent jailbreaks in Nigeria.
Aregbesola also revealed that 4,860 inmates escaped from various detention centers from 2020 to date, with 984 of them apprehended, at a media conference conducted by the Presidential Media Team at the State House in Abuja on Thursday.
This leaves the country with approximately 3876 convicts who are not in jail.
According to Aregbesola, all inmates in the country’s biometrics have been captured, and the Federal Government hopes that this initiative would aid in the tracking and recapture of the escapees.
He went on to say that the government is on the hunt for some of the attackers, with a couple of them apprehended in Imo State.
The minister told Nigerians that a ministerial task force would be established soon to enforce the re-arrest of all escapees and their accomplices.
Aregbesola’s remarks come just a few weeks after gunmen assaulted the Medium Security Custodial Centre in Oyo State’s Abolongo area, causing an unconfirmed number of detainees to flee.
The Federal Government announced a few hours after the siege that some of the inmates had been recaptured.
The Minister while reacting to the incident assured Nigerians that “the Federal Government will pursue not just those who attacked our facility, but those who have escaped lawful custody”.
