Suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Abba Kyari, has claimed he hid like a rat during the recent attack on the correctional facility in Kuje, federal capital territory (FCT).

On July 5, 2022, gunmen attacked the prison and freed over 500 inmates, including suspected members of Boko Haram.

There were rumours that Kyari and other high-profile inmates escaped, but spokesperson of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Abubakar Umar, denied the claim.

Moving another bail application at the court session on Wednesday, Kyari, through his lawyer, Onyechi Ikpeazu, told the court that he had the opportunity to escape but declined to do so.

My lord, every living soul in this country will agree that there was not just a breach, but that there was a grand terrorist attack by an organisation that not only successfully invaded the Kuje prison, but took control of it for over three hours,” Ikpeazu said.

“However, the applicant, being a law-abiding citizen, refused to take off.

“If there is anything to establish that the defendants will not jump bail, it was that circumstance. The gates of the prison were left open for over three hours.

“In fact, the defendant hid like a rat, because the organisation that conducted the attack went from cell to cell, saying they wanted to take him and the others to the desert.

I don’t know where else in the world, where certified crime fighters that have endangered their lives and abandoned their families to serve the country, are kept in the same cubicle with same criminals they made their arrest possible, with some of them facing death penalty.

“These people have suffered. They are traumatised by the events of that night. You can imagine what it felt like, witnessing the attackers planting explosives everywhere in the prison.”