The Nigeria Correctional Services (NCS) has released the identities of some of the prisoners who escaped the Suleja Medium Security Custodial Centre about 48 hours after NewsNGR did a report over its failure to make the identities public.
Checks on the website of the correctional service revealed that the identities of 18 out of the 96 fleeing inmates have been published.
The names and photos of the fleeing inmates include; Ogbonna Kingsley, Auwal Mohammed, Mustapha Ibrahim, Suleiman Sani, Raphael Kingsley, Abdullahi Babangida, Idris Bashir, Umar Mustapha, and Ayuba Obidience.
Others are; Lamido Gambo, Garba Fidelis, Mohammed Jibrin, Sylvester Allison, Albert Israel, Edoga Okwudili, Olaiya Stephen, Audo Usman and Ibrahim Aminu.
NewsNGR had reported that over 115 inmates escaped from the Medium Security Custodial Centre in Suleja, Niger State, following a downpour on the night of April 25, 2024.
The incident occurred when the heavy downpour caused damage to the custodial centre’s infrastructure, including a breach in the perimeter fence, which facilitated the inmates’ escape.
While 23 escapees were recaptured, the agency kept mum on the identities of the fleeing inmates for close to two months.
Since the Suleja jailbreak, there have been over 10 reported attacks in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and neighbouring states like Nasarawa and Niger, with at least 50 people being kidnapped. .
The delay in releasing the identities of the escaped inmates had raised questions about the correctional service’s data management capabilities.
Security experts had attributed the delay in releasing the identities to poor data management in Nigeria.
The expert identified the lack of digitisation in the correctional services and issues with the National Identification Number (NIN), passport numbers, and different security numbers, among others, for the inability to identify the escapees.