JAKARTA - About 300 inmates escaped after an alleged attack by terrorist militants Boko Haram on a prison in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Tuesday night, an interior ministry official said.
The attack, and the separate ambush on a convoy of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari's predecessor, who was absent, bound for his hometown in the northern state of Katsina, highlighted Nigeria's security challenges, particularly in the north where insurgents and armed gangs are rife.
Shuaib Belgore, permanent secretary at the interior ministry, told reporters outside the Abuja prison, which has 900 inmates, that a security guard was killed in the attack and three others were injured.
He further explained that the suspect in the Boko Haram attack came for members who are being held in prison.
"They came specifically for their co-conspirators, but to get them some of them were in the general population (prison) so they broke out and other people in that population also fled, but many of them have returned," Belgore said, launching Reuters 6 July.
He added that more than 600 inmates had escaped but half had been recaptured and the hunt was continuing.
"They have reported themselves to the police, some we managed to catch from the bushes where they were hiding, and (until) now we have found about 300 out of about 600 who have come out of their prison cells," he said.
Outside the prison, the charred remains of several vehicles with bullet holes were seen Wednesday morning, proving a firefight around during the raids.
A helicopter hovered overhead as armed security officers carried a shirtless inmate who was limping with a gaping wound in his leg, while another injured inmate was carried into prison.
Meanwhile, President Buhari was not in the motorcade carrying the security team, protocol, and preliminary media officers to the president's hometown of Daura, near the border with Niger, to prepare for the Eid al-Adha holiday for Muslims.
"The attackers opened fire at the convoy from an ambush position but were thwarted by the military, police and security personnel accompanying the convoy," a presidential spokesman said in a statement.
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