At least 16 inmates escaped from the Medium Security Custodial Centre in Keffi, Nasarawa State, in the early hours of Tuesday, the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has confirmed.
The service’s spokesperson, Umar Abubakar, said in a statement that the escape followed a violent breach of the facility’s security by some inmates, during which personnel on duty were attacked. Five officials sustained varying degrees of injury, with two in critical condition and receiving urgent medical attention.
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However, Mr Abubakar said seven of the escaped inmates had been recaptured, while security agencies were hunting for the remaining fugitives. He added that the Controller-General of Corrections, Sylvester Nwakuche, had ordered a full investigation into the incident, warning that no staff member found culpable would be spared.
Tuesday’s incident adds to a growing list of jailbreaks in Nigeria in recent years, despite repeated assurances by government officials that security at correctional facilities had been strengthened, especially after the high-profile Kuje prison attack in 2022.
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Ageing prisons, weak security deepen Nigeria’s jailbreak crisis
In April 2024, more than 100 inmates escaped from the Suleja Medium Security Custodial Centre, about 50 kilometres from Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, after torrential rainfall damaged parts of the ageing facility and brought down sections of its perimeter fence.
Authorities confirmed that 118 prisoners initially fled the facility during the incident, which occurred at the onset of the rainy season, but only 10 had been recaptured in the days that followed. A manhunt was launched for the remaining fugitives, whose identities were not immediately disclosed, prompting fears that some could pose significant security risks.
Officials acknowledged that many structures in the Suleja prison were built during the colonial era and had grown structurally weak over decades of use without substantial upgrades. The downpour that triggered the breach came weeks after Nigeria’s meteorological agency warned of intense rains and possible flooding in several states.
The Suleja escape also reignited public concern over the deteriorating state of Nigeria’s correctional facilities, many of which are overcrowded and under-resourced. Human rights groups have repeatedly noted that a significant proportion of inmates — in some prisons up to 70 per cent — are awaiting trial, with some languishing behind bars for years without conviction.
On the night of July 5, 2022, the Kuje Medium Security Custodial Centre—long regarded as one of Nigeria’s most secure prisons—was stormed in a highly coordinated attack attributed to Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP) in alliance with Ansaru.
The assailants attacked from multiple points, using explosives and small arms to breach the facility. The gun battle lasted close to an hour, leaving one prison guard dead, three others wounded, and at least four inmates killed.
An estimated 879 detainees—including over 60 Boko Haram and ISWAP members—escaped custody. Within days, authorities reported reclaiming roughly half of them, but hundreds remained unaccounted for, heightening fears of renewed militant activity in and around Abuja.
The attack exposed glaring security weaknesses at Kuje—vulnerabilities that should have been mitigated. The absence of basic surveillance, such as CCTV, low perimeter fencing, and its location within a densely populated zone all contributed to the facility’s downfall.
Experts later flagged the lack of robust monitoring systems and poor situational awareness as key failings. A year after the incident, the Nigerian Correctional Service reported the recapture of some escapees—around 415—yet the operation revealed slight improvement in nationwide prison security protocols.
Following the destructive blowback of the #ENDSARS protests in October 2020—when coordinated attacks on three Nigerian Correctional Service facilities in Edo and Ondo states led to the release of thousands of inmates and claimed the lives of around a dozen security officers—high-profile jailbreaks have increasingly shadowed Nigeria’s custodial system.
In total, 2,051 inmates escaped from those initial attacks alone, though some surrendered to authorities in the days that followed. Since then, at least 15 additional prison breaks have occurred, roughly six resulting in substantial escapes.
A PREMIUM TIMES investigation reveals that over the last year, more than 5,200 inmates escaped from correctional institutions across the country.
Among the most recent was the November 28 jailbreak at Jos Medium Security Custodial Centre, where 262 prisoners bolted from custody—coming mere weeks after similar mass releases at Abolongo in Oyo State.
Another break occurred just a month prior at the Kabba Correctional Centre in Kogi, where the escape coincided with the deaths of two security personnel. Notably, six months earlier, an attack on an Imo State facility in Owerri—carried out by suspected IPOB militants—resulted in the freedom of 1,844 inmates, further illustrating the scope of the problem.
Unfulfilled promises
In July 2022, following the brazen attack on the Kuje Medium Security Custodial Centre in Abuja—where over 800 inmates escaped, including more than 60 Boko Haram members—then-President Muhammadu Buhari issued a firm directive to security chiefs to “ensure there is no further successful attack on any prison anywhere in Nigeria
.” The order, delivered after a National Security Council meeting, was meant to signal zero tolerance for jailbreaks.
Mr Buhari’s directive came alongside assurances from the then-Minister of Police Affairs, Maigari Dingyadi, that the incident would be thoroughly investigated and that proactive measures would be implemented to forestall future breaches.
“Adequate measures are to be taken not only to investigate what happened but also to take steps to ensure that such incidents do not occur again,” Mr Dingyadi told journalists at the time.
The government also pledged that all correctional facilities nationwide had been fortified following ther attack on the Abolongo prison in Oyo State.
Yet, despite these assurances, prison breaks have continued across the country, exposing gaps in security infrastructure, intelligence gathering, and inter-agency coordination.
From Suleja to Jos and now Nasarawa, each breach has added to a growing list of incidents that undermine public trust in the government’s ability to secure its correctional centres.
The repeated failures have raised urgent questions about whether those 2022 promises were backed by effective, sustained action—or left to fade as the crisis deepened.
Billions spent, little change
In 2024, the federal government proposed a staggering ₦38.03 billion to feed inmates in Nigerian custodial centres for 2025, alongside ₦7.2 billion for facility upgrades. The budget also earmarked ₦1.7 billion for uniforms, ₦1.06 billion for medical supplies, and ₦1.23 billion for security equipment.
Vehicles worth ₦2.28 billion were to be procured to boost logistics and security operations, while ₦563.3 million was allocated to complete a 3,000-capacity maximum security prison in Abuja. Another ₦6.1 million was budgeted for new clinics across the six geopolitical zones and the FCT.
This follows a similar pattern in 2023, when the government proposed ₦22.44 billion for catering materials and foodstuffs for the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS). That year, the Ministry of Interior was allocated over ₦304.39 billion, with the NCoS receiving ₦91.79 billion.
Despite these allocations, many prisons remain overcrowded, structurally dilapidated, and short of basic facilities like prison vans to convey inmates to court. Staff welfare also remains poor, undermining morale and operational efficiency.
Historical data paints an even starker picture. Between 2010 and 2019, the NCoS received ₦613 billion in funding—an average of ₦17 billion annually for feeding alone in 244 correctional centres.
Annual allocations rose from ₦4 billion in 2015 to ₦16.6 billion in 2017, with even higher figures in 2018 and 2019.
However, over 70 per cent of the budgets went into recurrent expenditure, with little impact on infrastructural renewal or systemic reform. Lawmakers have repeatedly lamented the “gross human rights violations” that persist in the system despite these huge sums.
Meanwhile, the challenges mount. Figures from the World Prison Brief reveal that the number of inmates awaiting trial has increased from 62 per cent in 2000 to nearly 70 per cent today, worsening overcrowding.
The prison population rose from 44,450 in 2000 to 73,248 by May 2020, yet successive budgets have failed to address the infrastructural deficit meaningfully.
With billions committed annually, the persistent decay raises difficult questions about accountability, value for money, and the political will to reform Nigeria’s ailing custodial system.
Ignored warnings and intelligence failures fuel repeat jailbreaks
In its 3 September 2024 report, the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) warned that Nigeria’s correctional facilities remain dangerously vulnerable to coordinated attacks by violent extremist groups.
The think tank noted that the Kuje prison break — in which Boko Haram detainees escaped and reportedly made their way to the Lake Chad islands through Niger, highlighted “deep gaps in surveillance, manpower, and intelligence” at facilities holding high-risk inmates.
ISS cautioned that these successes could inspire similar extremist networks in East and Central Africa unless Nigeria strengthens its internal security protocols and improves cross-border collaboration.
Insider accounts from correctional officers and security analysts point to repeated failures to implement past recommendations following earlier jailbreaks. Some officers said intelligence reports about possible attacks were downplayed or ignored, while manpower shortages left facilities under-defended.
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In some cases, CCTV and alarm systems were either non-functional or unmanned, creating exploitable blind spots. “The pattern is the same — warnings are issued, nothing changes, and we end up counting another jailbreak,” one retired senior prison official told PREMIUM TIMES.
Nigeria’s House of Representatives has repeatedly raised alarm over the state of the correctional system, describing it as “a ticking time bomb.” Lawmakers have repeatedly summoned security chiefs and correctional authorities to explain lapses, but concrete reforms remain elusive.
While billions have been budgeted annually for infrastructure upgrades and security equipment, parliamentarians say the persistence of overcrowded cells, obsolete technology, and inadequate staffing underscores a failure in execution — a gap that extremists continue to exploit with deadly precision.
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