72 hours after Abuja terrorists’ attack, Buhari summons Security Council meeting, says govt forces were overpowered

More than 72 hours after the bloody attack of the Kuje Correctional Centre, Abuja, President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday presided over an “emergency’’ National Security Council meeting to review the parlous security situation in the country, saying security guards at the facility were overwhelmed by the terrorists.

The meeting concluded that the terrorists succeeded because they outnumbered the government’s security agents on ground and also overwhelmed them with their superior firepower.

According to the council, the security forces did their best to repel the attack but were overpowered.

The Minister of Police Affairs, Alhaji Mohammed Dingyadi, said this while briefing State House correspondents on the outcome of the Security Council meeting held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Persecondnews had reported the terrorists’ deadly invasion of the Correctional facility like a holocaust on Tuesday, killing some inmates and a security officer after blowing up the fence with explosives and hail of bullets.

They freed more than 67 of their members languishing at Kuje Correctional Centre.

Dingyadi said President Buhari had directed the service chiefs to ensure that adequate measures are taken not only to investigate the incident and also take steps to forestall a recurrence.

According to him, the meeting reviewed the security situation across the country particularly the Kuje jail break, gunmen attacks in Katsina and Shiroro local government area of Niger State.

“Mr. President is surprised that what happened in Kuje actually took place in spite of all the security arrangements that have been made to ensure that such an incident does not happen.

“You see these kind of things happen and I want to assure you that all those who are supposed to play a role in ensuring that the attack is neutralized did the best they could to neutralize it.

“I think what helped them (terrorists) was the number of people they came with and the superior weapons that they came with.

“And because nobody anticipated it, the few people who are there guarding the place could not withstand the number that they came with. I think that was what happened.

“The service chiefs have been given very clear directives to ensure that adequate measures are taken not only to investigate what happened, but also to take steps to forestall the reoccurrence of such incidences.

“Investigation is still going on. Let us allow the investigation to continue and may be by the time they finish, you will be able to get the details of what actually happened and why it happened,’’ the minister said.

On whether there were casualties on the part of the terrorists, Dingyadi said they lost some of their members in the attack.

“Some of them have been killed. But I can’t give you the number and I don’t know the number. Because like they use to do, whenever one of them is killed, they take the corpse away.

“And you cannot know the number of people who have been killed but definitely quite a number of them were killed and many of them ran away with bullet wounds,’’ he also said.

Dingyadi, therefore, urged Nigerians to continue to support the Federal Government in the fight against crime and criminalities and to restore order and normalcy in the country.