61,000 Boko Haram Suspects Detained In North East – Aregbesola

Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has said Nigeria is on the path to totally defeating Boko Haram terrorists and other criminals in the country. He said many of the of the terrorists have been arrested, especially in the North East zone

The minister made the claim yesterday when he visited Kirikiri maximum and medium security custodial centres in Apapa, Lagos State. “Today, a core of the criminal elements and insurgents across the country are on a path to defeat, they have been heavily degraded. Over 61,000 of them are in our custody in the North East,” he said, adding, “Our assurance to Nigerians is that we shall rise above these challenges and emerge stronger and more resilient.”

The minister charged officers and men of the Nigeria security forces and paramilitary agencies in the country to remain vigilant to defeat criminal elements terrorising the country.

“We must acknowledge our servicemen and security agencies, who have sacrificed a lot to make this possible. We must equally charge them to remain eternally vigilant and continuously evolve strategies. And to define these strategies, we have to make decisions based not on fear, but on hard-earned wisdom.

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“I have also informed our officers and men here that they must fight to defend our institutions, territory and constitution. It also applies to all others wherever they are posted in Nigeria. The ragtag groups of opportunists must not be allowed to attack our institutions and get away. They must not live to tell the story,” Ogbeni Aregbesola stated.

On the part of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), the minister directed management of the service to improve its efforts on intelligence gathering and acting on such information garnered, saying it is the panacea to solving the problem of incessant Custodial Centres’ attacks.

Mr Aregbesola said so far, no jailbreak by inmates has been successful. “We have successfully quelled all of them. What we have seen recurring since the #EndSars protests of October 2020 has been a mass of people attacking our facilities from outside and setting the inmates free.”

The minister said he has directed the controller-general of prisons to double his efforts on intelligence gathering to fortify and prevent breaches to the custodial centres beyond the use of arms and force.