The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, has said he will not resign over the recent jailbreaks across the country.
Aregbesola stated this on Wednesday, while speaking with State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.
There has been a series of jailbreaks at different custodial centres across the country in recent months, which has led to the loss of lives, while thousands of inmates have escaped.
The most recent attack occurred in November when gunmen invaded the Jos correctional centre.
Aregbesola had, in November, said a total of 3,906 inmates who escaped from different correctional facilities in the country were at large.
Speaking on the development, the minister said the calls for his resignation in “some quarters” is “unnecessary”.
“Morally, the state owes itself the responsibility of safe custody that must not be violated. So, on that account alone, we must appreciate the enormity of any successful attack on our custodial facility and I so do. But I want us to put these things in the context of our security situation,” he said.
“In Jos, our men died, meaning that the best we could put there was there and when your best could not suffice, it means that it is no longer a question of inability to make preparation or failure for preparedness, it is just that at that instance, we could not just hold the defence as expected.
“As to whether it calls for my resignation, I still don’t see any need for that because it’s not for lack of preparedness that the attacks were successful. No.”
He, however, assured Nigerians that the government will step up security around the correctional centres.
