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Riot Brews as Kuje Prison Warders Claim Boko Haram Stole N82 Million, $36,000 Cash Belonging To Inmates

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The money had been kept with at least five prison officials, including those manning the commissary, for several months, our sources said.

Inmates held at Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja are threatening a deadly riot after officials claimed a large chunk of money kept for the prisoners had been carted away by Boko Haram insurgents who breached the facility on Tuesday night, two sources with information have informed Peoples Gazette.

The money had been kept with at least five prison officials, including those manning the commissary, for several months, officials said.

“One prison guard told 13 inmates this afternoon that all the money they kept with him had been stolen,” an official said. “He bluntly told them that the N26 million is no longer in his possession.”

The prison, about 43 kilometres southwest of downtown Abuja, was breached at about 10:00 p.m. by suspected Boko Haram insurgents. While some detainees refused to take advantage of the jailbreak, all prisoners affiliated with Boko Haram escaped, according to defence minister Bashir Magashi.

At least 84 Boko Haram assets were believed held at Kuje prior to the attack, which lasted about three hours without any consequential intervention from security forces. About 600 inmates escaped in total, although officials said some had voluntarily returned. Actual roll-call statistics remained unclear as of Wednesday evening, nearly 24 hours after the attack.

President Muhammadu Buhari visited the facility for a few minutes on his way to the airport on a foreign trip to Senegal Wednesday afternoon, inspecting the damage while assuring correctional managers of support.

As the president departed the scene, prisoners began shouting that they’d lost money during the raid, while some threatened violence should officials fail to return their cash.

“Yes, that is the problem we’re confronting now,” an official said when asked for corroboration Wednesday evening. “Some people lost money in naira while some lost in dollars.”

The official said the money belong to wealthy individuals inside the prison.

“It’s those big men that are more enraged because they kept millions with the warders,” the official said. “About N82 million was declared missing and four people are looking for $36,000.”

“We don’t know what the prison management will do about the matter because the money was not kept with the warders officially,” our source added. The officials spoke under anonymity because they did not receive permission to comment on internal prison disputes.

A corrections spokesman did not return a request seeking comments about the missing cash and threats of violence thereof.

The facility holds politicians including former Taraba Governor Jolly Nyame and federal lawmaker Farouk Lawan. Disgraced police chief Abba Kyari is also held at the centre, as well as former pensions directorate grunt Abdulrasheed Maina.

In a recent letter protesting his protracted incarceration before a federal judge, Mr Kyari said he was funding a lot of activities at Kuje prisons, including monthly cable TV subscriptions.

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The British Left Two Devils Behind When They Left Nigeria -Bode George

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“I have said it before, there are two devils left behind when the British left Nigeria. The first was tribalism. They planted it as a devil and the second is Religious bigotry. What has these issues got to do with managing people.

“Nobody selected himself that I want to be Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa man. No. You just popped out and whether you are a Muslim or Christian is irrelevant.

“In all religions that I know, you are told to love your Neighbor as yourself. What you will not accept, don’t do it to another neighbor because if you pack up and die, that’s the end. Let us have an impact of governance.” -Chief Bode George On AriseTV News

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After years of evading arrest, NDLEA nabs most wanted Lagos drug baron, Temo

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After many years of wearing the toga of invincibility, the overall head of the Mushin, Lagos drug cartel, 57-year-old Alhaji Sulaiman Jimoh (alias Olowoidiogede, populary known as Temo), has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, at his enclave after an initial resistance from him and his horde of hoodlums.

In the last two years, the NDLEA had intercepted large consignments of illicit drugs worth billions of naira owned by Temo but he has remained largely evasive while a few encounters with him and his armed gangs in his Mushin enclave had resulted in gunfight.

Some of the recent seizures of his shipments include: a 14, 524.8 kilograms of Ghana Loud, a strong strain of cannabis sativa, smuggled into Lagos from Ghana in two trucks and a J5 bus intercepted at Ojuelegba area of Lagos in the early hours of Sunday 28th January 2024; two truck-loads of the same substance weighing 8,852kg intercepted at Eleko beach, Lekki Lagos on 4th May 2023 and 252kg of Loud seized from his enclave in Mushin on Wednesday 26th July 2023. Indeed, in the last two encounters, his men engaged NDLEA operatives in gunfight.

The drug kingpin was very notorious for always being on the move to evade arrest but with persistence and determination of the Agency aided by modern tools and intelligence, the concerted effort to get him paid off at 10am on Monday 22nd July 2024 when NDLEA’s surveillance teams on his trail tracked and pinned him down at Igbarere street, Mushin. A reinforcement of about 50 operatives was immediately mobilized to the area while he was attempting to escape in a Mercedes Benz SUV GLE 350 marked 01G-300G. His attempt to escape by mobilizing hoodlums to engage and distract the operatives however failed after which he was overpowered and whisked away from the chaotic scene while his men surrendered to the superior firepower of the anti-narcotic agents who also succeeded in recovering the Mercedes Benz SUV the suspect was found in.

In his reaction to the arrest of Temo, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) commen

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Peter Obi Writes Onanuga, Demands Apology, N5bn within 72 Hours

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The Presidential Candidate of our Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi has demanded from the Special Adviser on Communication and Strategy to the President, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, the retraction of his wild allegation, linking him as behind the planned mass protest being planned for August.

Obi, writing through his counsel, Chief Alex Ejesieme, SAN of the MADIBA Chambers, said that the allegation which was widely published in social and mainstream media and read by many within and outside the country maligned his hard-earned reputation as a man who indulges in violence when all his antecedents are vivid that he abhors violence even in the face of extreme provocation.

“It’s our client’s conviction that the publication was a calculated plot to demean, ridicule, humiliate and embarrass him by the estimation of every right thinking member of the society”

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