The Minister of Police Affairs, Mohammed Dingyadi, has claimed security forces gunned down many of the Boko Haram terrorists who attacked Kuje prison on Tuesday night, without providing any evidence to substantiate his statement. 

Mr Dingyadi Friday made the unverified claim in a question-and-answer session with journalists at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa in Abuja shortly after the National Security Council meeting presided over by president Muhammadu Buhari.

Responding to a question on if any terrorist has been arrested, the police minister asserted sans evidence that the insurgents were killed and their bodies taken away by comrades.

“Some of them have been killed. But I can’t give you the number and I don’t know the number,” claimed the police affairs minister. 

He further alleged many of the terrorists sustained bullet wounds after security forces engaged them in a fierce gun battle.

“Because like they use (sic) to do, whenever one of them is killed, they take away and you cannot know the number of people who have been killed but definitely quite a number of them were killed and many of them runway (sic) with bullet wounds,” added Mr Dingyadi.

His claim however contradicts the statement of defence minister, Bashir Magashi who as of Wednesday, made no mention of recovered corpses and stated the escaped terrorists were still at large. 

The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) on Wednesday disclosed an operative of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and four inmates of the Kuje Custodial Centre died, while 16 others were injured during the Boko Haram attack.

The NCoS in its Wednesday statement did not include a report on the so-called death and injury of many Boko Haram terrorists as claimed by police minister Dingyadi.