The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved the purchase of 400 Beretta assault rifles with 20,000 rounds of ammunition for officials of the Nigeria Prisons Service.

The Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau announced the approval at the end FEC meeting held inside the council chamber. The meeting was chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Dambazau said the arms and ammunition will be purchased at the cost of N272 million.

He noted that this will prevent further jailbreaks in the country.

“If you recall, not too long ago, our prison in Minna was attacked from the outside and some of the dangerous prisoners were freed.

“The prison has an armed squad. We realised after an investigation of that attack that one of the major shortcomings within that prison was lack of adequate arms and ammunition.”

One prison official and a motorcyclist were killed in June 2018 during the process of a jailbreak at theMedium Security Prisons in Minna, the Niger State capital.

•Sourced from a Channels TV report