President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed disappointment with the Intelligence system, following the terrorists’ attack on Medium Security Custodial Centre, Kuje.

After inspecting the attack scene on Wednesday, the president said, “I am disappointed with the intelligence system. How can terrorists organise, have weapons, attack a security installation and get away with it?”

According to the presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, “Soon after he (Buhari) arrived, he was briefed about the attack by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior, Shuaib Belgore and the Controller General of Nigerian Correctional Service, Haliru Nababa, showing him the bombed-out section used to access first, and the records office which was set on fire, adding that the invaders thereafter launched an attack on all cells in which Boko Haram terrorists were held.

“The President was apprised that, at the end of it, none of the 63 terrorists are accounted for, but it was emphasized that records are not lost because they have been backed up.”

Shehu in a statement issued after the visit said Buhari, like most Nigerians, was shocked by both the scale and audacity of the attack and queried: “How did the defences at the prison fail to prevent the attack? How many inmates were in the facility? How many of them can you account for? How many personnel did you have on duty? How many of them were armed? Were there guards on the watchtower? What did they do? Does the CCTV work?”

He said the President was also informed that the security forces had recaptured 350 of the escapees while about 450 others were still unaccounted for, and that rapid work was under way to recapture the rest.

Shehu said Buhari, accompanied by Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Ibrahim Gambari, Chief of Staff to the president, stated at the end of the visit that he was expecting “a comprehensive report” on the incident.

While reacting to mounting criticism of the trip to Dakar, Senegal by the President, he stressed that “Governments don’t stop working because nations face terrorist threats.

“To cancel the trip to Senegal would mean that the terrorists are successful in calling the shots, something that no responsible government in the world will allow.”

Daily Trust