BEVERLY HILLS, November 15, (THEWILL) – The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the purchase of 400 Beretta assault rifles with 20,000 rounds of ammunition for the Nigeria Prisons Service.

The Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau disclosed this on Wednesday at the end of a meeting of the council which held inside the council chamber.

The meeting was chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo due to the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Dambazau said the arms and ammunition “is peculiar to those weapons” and will be purchased at the cost of N272 million with a delivery period of 120 days.

“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,” Mr Dambazau said.