- Front view of the facility, showing some fire dent after the attack
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, who is being detained in the Kuje Correctional Centre, Abuja over drug related offences, narrowly escaped death Tuesday night when terrorists attacked the facility but remained in the place, prison sources have disclosed.
This was contrary to reports that his whereabouts were unknown after the attack. According to reports, one of the rescued commanders had rallied his gang to fish out Kyari from the isolated cell and finish him up immediately his colleagues succeeded in setting him free.
The commander allegedly pointed in the direction of the isolated area as they were escaping from the facility and they all moved towards the place, shouting: “Abba Kyari, you are dead, we will kill you now,” and fired many rounds of ammunition towards the place.
Two bombs were also thrown in that direction, but they did not explode, according to the prison source, who prefers anonymity, and as they approached the building, shots from military men prompted their hasty retreat towards the breach they had made on the wall, through which their rescue gang came in.
It was further gathered that as soon as the bandits disappeared from the facility, many of the inmates ran away through the same route. The source said: “We ran into the cells for dear life when we saw the barrage of bullets coming from their highly sophisticated weapons.
“Some of the inmates received us warmly, thinking that we were their targets. They moved without restraint or direction from anybody towards where the Boko Haram suspects were confined, indicating that they must have carried out surveillance discreetly before storming the centre.”
However, “I must add that I admire Abba Kyari’s courage because he was one of the first inmates that came out to confront the other inmates escaping from the centre. He was overheard in both Hausa language and pidgin English appealing for calm as they rushed to also escape through the wall.
“It was God that saved Kyari. Had those bombs exploded, he would have become history by now.”
Meanwhile, about two and half hours after the terrorists had left with their members, Kyari, alongside former member of the House of Representatives, Farouk Lawan, and former governor Jolly Nyame, who were serving jail sentences, and a few others were said to have remained in the facility.
According to the source, the terrorists set free included those who bombed Kuje and Nyanya in 2015, and those arrested by Kyari and his team for kidnapping the Chibok school girls, while many of the inmates who escaped with them were kidnappers, armed robbers, bandits and those on death row for murder.
