Only last Sunday, 175 inmates of the Olokuta Prison, Akure, Ondo State were set free in a stunning jailbreak. It was the latest in an embarassingly long list of jailbreaks that have rocked the nation. Are the walls of Nigerian prisons no longer strong enough to hold suspects and convicts? How impregnable, actually, are the country's penitentiaries?
In the very early hours of Sunday, 30 June 2013, 12 05am to be precise, no fewer than 30 gunmen stormed the Olokuta Medium Security Prison, Akure, Ondo State in a commando-like raid. At the end of their operation, two people were reported killed while the gates were flung open for no fewer than 175 inmates of the penitentiary to escape.
The armed men were said to have gained entry into the prison by using dynamite to blow off a section of the walls, after a futile attempt to enter through the main entrance.
The prison, which is about a kilometre to the headquarters of the 32 Artillery Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Owena Barrack, was riddled with bullets. All the streetlights leading to the prison were also destroyed by the hoodlums. Two months earlier, May 7 to be precise, a similar but bloodier scenario was played out in Borno State.
The Bama prison was invaded by members of the Jam'atul Ahlis Sunnah Lidda'awati Wal-Jihad otherwise known as Boko Haram sect. In the bloody attack 55 people who included 22 police officers, 14 prison officials, two soldiers and four civilians, were killed.
No fewer than 105 inmates escaped. On 5 November, 2012, Police in Abuja said they might have foiled a major prison break after they intercepted a bombladen car headed for the city's jail facility.
Police officials said the black Volkswagen Golf car wired with explosives was apparently intended for a suicide bombing jailbreak on Kuje Prisons at the outskirts of Abuja. It was, however, unclear how the police intercepted the suspicious car but officials claimed they had both the car and its occupant in their custody at the Kuje central police station.
On Friday, 12 October, 2012, two inmates of the Federal Prisons, Ahoada, Rivers State, were on feared killed while a prison staff was hurt during a foiled jailbreak. While the just stated was unsuccessful, on 24 June, 2012 suspected members of Boko Haram, staged a daring attack on the Damaturu prison on Gashua Road, and set free 40 of their members who were being detained.
A fleeing inmate was reportedly killed while a prison warder was injured during the attack. On 16 February, 2012 the prison in Koton-Karif town, Kogi State was attacked by gunmen who freed about 200 prisoners.
An attempted prison break in Warri, Delta State, was, on Saturday, 16 July, 2011 foiled by a combined team of heavily armed military, mobile policemen and prison warders. While capitalising on a seven-hour downpour which started at noon, prisoners at Okere Prison were said to have used the opportunity to dig a hole behind the prison wall to facilitate their escape, but the quick intervention of some prison warders prevented the jailbreak.
It was the turn of Yola, Taraba State on 22 April, 2011. There was a jailbreak and 14 alleged members of the Boko Haram sect escaped. Earlier in the year, 5 January, 2011, an attempt was made at jailbreak in the same prison.
About 10 officials reportedly escaped being lynched when inmates revolted. It was, however, curtailed. But in the 7 September, 2010 jailbreak at Bauchi Prisons about 700 inmates escaped.
The list goes on and on in a society which had hitherto been almost alien to reports of jailbreaks.
The development almost got to an embarrassing state for the Nigeria Prison Services, NPS, which in a move it believed would stem the situation in February 2012 sacked 50 if its officials.
It accused them of complicity in some investigated prison breaks from 2007 till date. The Controller-General of the NPS, Alhaji Zakari Ohinoyi Ibrahim, also warned officers and men of the service formations and units to be wary of security breaches, saying they were responsible for inmates' escape. He added that any officer, whose duty post is found to be the source of escape and riots, would be dismissed.
Ibrahim urged NPS officials to effectively secure the prisons by expanding their security strength, adding that there is need to deploy armed prison guards to tighten security and prevent future jail breaks and riots.
"All zonal controllers will be held personally responsible for untoward incidents in the discharge of the duties of officers and men under their formation, whether in the negligence of prisons control among other mandates, or related matters.
Appropriate punishment and sanctions will be duly meted out without sentiments. My administration will not tolerate major security breaches. Any breach of the Prisons Act by workers will not be tolerated," the NPS boss said then.
Tough words from a courageous officer. They, however, did not seem to have much effects. Series of jailbreaks had transpired since then. What could have been responsible for this unwholesome development?
Serving officials of the NPS, including the Public Relations of Zone F, Oladapo, declined comments sighting the sensitive nature of prison break. "That topic is too classified for online discussion.
You there is classified information. I will call you when I am ready to address the press. The situation now, the situation now... Please, just give me some time," Oladapo said. A retired Controller of Prisons who had once served at the recently attacked Olokuta Prison described it as well built and secured.
"Did you see the photograph displayed in the papers? That is the only area that they could penetrate. The place is well built and secured. If there is any prison that is strong, Olokuta is one.
I have worked there before. Go and check the place very well. That is the only place they can penetrate. Almost everything is concrete. It, however, shows that their weapon is stronger" he explained though declining to have his name mentioned. He based his unanimous contribution on the sensitive nature of the matter under discuss and also his status as a retired personnel.
Curiously, Saturday Mirror investigations revealed that the modus operandi of the hoodlums in the various reported jailbreaks are similar and the conditions in the facilities also below regulation standard. A member of the Prison Rehabilitation Mission International, Rev. Kayode Williams in a television programme blamed the Olokuta prison break, on the weakness in the security system of the country's penitentiaries.
"I was not surprised, because I know that our prisons are very porous," he said. He expressed bewilderment on why such an attack could take place and there was no security check on ground to curb the gunmen who riddled fortified walls, gates, and floors with bullets and finally gaining entrance by using explosives. He said the Olokuta medium security prison is supposed to be a model prison and that it is actually new compared to those of Ibadan Lagos in terms of structure.
"This is one is supposed to be one of the new models, one of the new prisons. It is supposed to be one of the model ones and that is why it was not fenced by wall but with barbed wire and they have what we call the armed squad men, the prisons armed squad men "That is what baffles me because they've invested in the arms squad men to be able to face it, maybe they were not properly equipped that day or something is wrong with command there," Williams added.
National Mirror
Jailbreak is just something that should be reduced for things to flow well in any country. I'm sure so many people know that too