By Ismail Auwal
The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has formed a special security team to beef up security around detention facilities across the country.
This is according to a statement released on Sunday in Abuja by the Service Public Relations Officer (SPRO), Francis Enobore.
After meeting with the Commandant General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Abubakar Audi, and the Acting Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Idris Jere, the Controller General of the NCoS, Haliru Nababa, made the disclosure.
The meeting, according to Nababa, was centered on strengthening intelligence gathering and sharing among security operatives in order to thwart attacks.
He recalled that on December 9, during a ministerial retreat in Ilorin, Kwara, the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, directed security agencies under the Ministry of Interior to work together as a family in the areas of intelligence gathering, sharing, and physical confrontation with jail attackers.
He described the perpetrators as common enemies whose main goal was to challenge the authority and strength of the federal government, and thus they should not be allowed to live to tell their story.
He stated that the synergy would also include the immediate establishment of a Joint Taskforce of Armed Personnel comprised of the three arm-bearing agencies under the Ministry of Interior.
He also stated that the task force would work alongside officers and men from the Nigerian armed forces and the Nigeria Police Force who were already deployed to assist the corrections armed squad in guarding custodial facilities.
Audi responded by praising the initiative and promising to task all state commandants in his service with preparing for the onerous task.
He stated that this would include safeguarding custodial facilities, which have now been designated as critical national infrastructure, as the final agency in the implementation of Nigeria’s criminal justice system.
He also advocated for more regular meetings and increased investment in intelligence gathering to help prevent future armed incursions and other criminal activities.
Also contributing, Jere stated that the NIS was ready to activate the data of escapees at all entry and exit points manned by his personnel in order to strengthen the recapture process that had already begun.
Jere praised the CGC for aggressively pursuing the deployment of technology that, sooner or later, would replace the current operating system, making escapes/jail attacks more difficult, among other things.
He also emphasized the importance of forming a united front to confront the misguided activities of armed criminals, and expressed confidence that they would be defeated in no time.
