THE Kuje Custodial Centre, popularly known as Kuje Prison, and its surrounding communities in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, are currently gripped by fear, The ICIR reports.

This follows a heavy deployment of security personnel and restrictions on movement in parts of the area.

Scores of soldiers and other security officers from the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have taken over the area since the evening of Friday, March 27.  However, the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has insisted that the Kuje Custodial Centre remains safe, adding that the presence of soldiers around the facility is not unusual.

Although the exact reason for the heavy security presence could not be confirmed, the correctional centre was previously attacked in 2022, leading to its fortification and remodeling by the Federal Government.

During that incident, the Nigerian Correctional Service reported that 879 inmates escaped, while five people, including an officer of the NSCDC and four inmates, lost their lives. The attackers, suspected to be members of Boko Haram, reportedly freed 64 of their members held at the facility.

Since the 2022 attack on the facility in Kuje, alongside several others across the nation under the late President Muhammadu Buhari administration, military has been deployed to protect correctional centres in the country.

Unusual military presence in Kuje Prison since Friday, March 27, 2026

On Saturday morning, heavily armed soldiers, accompanied by sniffer dogs, were seen combing the Shetuko community located behind the facility. The soldiers and other security operatives formed strategic perimeters across parts of the community and conducted searches in several uncompleted buildings.

On Friday night, military personnel armed with whips and weapons were observed preventing motorists from parking along the Pasali/Shedadi Junction opposite the Prison Road.

By Saturday morning, both motorcycles and vehicle were not allowed to drive through the Prison Road which leads to Shetuko community and surrounding areas around the correctional centre.

Shetuko residents have since been going through the Freedom Estate, a burden that adds about two kilometres to their journey if they are heading to the centre of Kuje, or going out of the town. Soldiers in trucks, were seen around the junction.

Some residents who spoke with The ICIR said commercial motorcyclists had doubled their fares in response to the situation. Others, who previously opted to walk due to rising petrol prices and increased transport costs, said the new restrictions had made movement significantly more difficult.

The ICIR contacted the spokesperson for the NCoS, Jane Osuji, over the development. She said soldiers had been protecting the facility and their presence was normal.

“Security agencies, if you have been covering them, you don’t expect them to give you information about their operations. It is for your protection. It’s not everything that’s supposed to be out there, for the benefit of the people. Because of the current insecurity around the country, we just need to trust and believe that they have our interest at heart. They are working for us; it is for our benefit.

“Kuje Custodial Centre is safe. There is nothing that is unusual about soldiers being in and around the custodial centre. They have been there with us. As far as I am concerned, as I am speaking with you, there is no emergency or security concerns other than the fact that the custodial centre has to be protected as required.”