Sack Aregbesola Now Over Reoccurring Jailbreaks – HURIWA To Buhari
A civil rights advocacy group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, has demanded that Rauf Aregbesola, the interior minister, be sacked immediately for his failure to address the country’s ongoing attacks on prisons.
In a statement issued on Thursday and bearing the signature of its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA expressed its disapproval of the jailbreaks that occurred while Aregbesola was in office.
According to the organisation, the former governor of Osun State was responsible for more than 15 jailbreaks during the previous five years, during which time more than 3,000 prisoners fled from detention.
As was previously reported, terrorists heavily armed with explosives stormed the Kuje Correctional Center on Tuesday night, resulting in fatalities.
Over 600 prisoners were reportedly released by the militants during the operation, including 64 detained suspected Boko Haram members.
Additionally, HURIWA advised President Muhammadu Buhari to stop posing ambiguous questions about why the nation’s intelligence apparatus was unable to foresee Tuesday’s attack at Kuje jail in Abuja on social media.
The organization urged that the President immediately form a judicial commission to look into prison attacks throughout the nation and make sure that attacks on Nigeria’s whole security system never happen again.
The statement reads in part, “The spate of jailbreaks under President Muhammadu Buhari and Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, is alarming and condemnable. Even under then-President Goodluck Jonathan, who had no military experience or background, jailbreaks weren’t as rampant as what Nigerians see these days.
“The frequent and recurring jailbreaks show the inefficiency of all those President Buhari appointed into office and his unwillingness to sack them show also that the President tacitly want the situation to continue to fester.
“HURIWA demands the sacking of the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola; and his Defence counterpart, Bashir Magashi; for perpetual incompetence. We also call for a broad-based judicial panel of inquiry on prison breaks in Nigeria to be constituted.”
