The Boko Haram faction known as the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) has claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack on Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja.

The terrorists released video footage of how they carried out the operation, shooting severally in the head a Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) personnel who wore Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) camouflage as at the time he was funded down. 

They were also speaking in a language considered foreign, indicating that the commanders of the terrorists were non-Nigerians. 

The footage showed how the terrorists surrounded the prison facility unhindered, shooting at every entrance, and windows at the exterior buildings and offices, before they entered the facility and took away their members in custody.

According to the group, the attack was carried out by “soldiers of the caliphate” with automatic weapons.

For the period they operated, according to their video recording, neither operatives from the nearby military facility along the Kuje-Airport road, nor the several Mimitary and Police checkpoints, provided any reinforcement for the security in the prison facility, nor did they lay any ambush against the terrorists while they escaped.

According to an eyewitness, the terrorists invaded the facility around 9:05 pm and operated till 1:30 am on Wednesday morning.

The claim by the terrorists was made few days after ISWAP said its fighters killed a policeman in Suleja, Niger State.

It is reported that ISWAP has for months taken over communities around Shiroro and other Local Government Areas in Niger state and are said to be grouping in communities around Abuja with the aim to launch full-scale war on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the future.

They are said to be inching towards Suleja in Niger state. Suleja is less than 20 kilometres away from the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.