REVEALED: Kuje prison attackers camped at Karishi
While the government is still struggling to recapture inmates who escaped in the Kuje prison attack on July 5, source has revealed how terrorists prepared for the operation.
The terrorists who carried out the attack on the Kuje Medium Security Custodial Centre, Abuja launched the invasion from Karishi, a hilly community on the outskirts of the city, The Nation can now confirm.
The terrorists had converged on a mountain in the area for about two weeks, perfecting their strategy for the attack, security sources said yesterday.
Karishi is about 65.6 kilometres away from the prisons.
Over 600 inmates of the custodial centre, including 64 high profile Boko Haram members, were set free by the gunmen, who also killed several people.
Sources said farmers around the hills had tipped off security agencies about strange movement involving an unusually large number of people suspected to be terrorists in the area.
It was gathered that the tip-off was not immediately followed up on account of what was described as previous false alarms raised by villagers in some of the communities around the FCT.
It was after the attack that it became clear that the bandits launched the attack from the Karishi Mountain.
A military source denied suggestions that the military got intelligence from the Department of State Services (DSS) on plot to attack the prison.
“What people should know is that the military is currently stretched thin and cannot solely undertake the responsibility of tackling the security situation in the country,” the source said.
He added: “For instance, there is nowhere in the world that it is the duty of the military to guard prisons.
“Since the attack of the prisons, we have heard all manner of conspiracy theories.
“Some group alleged that the Military withdrew soldiers from their duty post at Kuje to pave the way for the bandits to attack the prison. That is absolute nonsense.
“Others have also claimed that the DSS gave the military intelligence before the attack, but that is also not true.
“The only thing that looked like intelligence was the reports from some farmers in Karishi about the convergence of a large number of bandits on a mountain in Karishi.
“But we were keeping surveillance and analysing the report when they attacked the prison.
“It was after the attack that it became clear what their mission was.
“Like I said, the military is doing everything possible to secure the country and protect the FCT from further attack.”
The military authorities have already set up a board of inquiry to ascertain what happened on that day and to know how it was possible for the terrorists to operate at the Kuje prison for several hours without any form of resistance.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Guards Brigade and Assistant Director, Army Public Relations, Captain Godfrey Abakpa, confirmed the setting up of the board.
The panel, according to him, will identify “the root cause of the attack.”
But he added: “Nobody is being detained. Investigation is ongoing. Everybody is telling his own side of the story. It is not our job to guard prisons but we respond in support of civil authority.
“The board was set up because it happened within our area of responsibility. Checkpoints and patrols were ordered because some of the escapees are believed to be still around like the one arrested in (Garki) Area 1 Park.
“There should be no panic. There is the tendency that no such further attack will be possible with the arrangements in place”.
The Director Defence Information, Major General Jimmy Akpor, said the security agencies would not leave anything to chance.
“The security agencies are not sleeping. They are doing what needs to be done to keep the place safe. A lot of things are being done. Measures have been put in place.
“Of all the security agencies, none is sleeping,” he said.
Some of the fleeing prisons inmates have been arrested.
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