Like the Top Drama Series on american TV Prison Break ! complete with TBagwellWe will fill you as more reports flow in !Enugu — OVER 150 of the 734 inmates in the awaiting trial section of the Enugu Prisons broke out of jail in the early hours of yesterday, Comptroller-General of Nigeria Prisons, Olushola Ogundipe, confirmed yesterday.Ogundipe, who flew into Enugu to assess the situation, also said that one of the escapees was unlucky as he, Comptroller-General of Nigeria Prisons, Olushola Ogundipe plunged headlong to his death, after scaling the high fence.Similarly, he told reporters that three wardens of the prisons were seriously injured and are presently undergoing treatment in an unnamed hospital.Two inmates were said to have been killed in the incident while 36 female prisoners were gang-raped by the fleeing inmates.Inside sources said the Awaiting Trial Members (ATM) were said to have facilitated the jailbreak which spread to other cells in the prisons, leaving about 20 prison wardens seriously injured.Enugu-based oil magnate and Chairman, Nowas Group, Dr. Ignatius Nnubia and his manager, Emma Okoli, who were remanded in the prison for their alleged involvement in the kidnap of Dr. Francis Edemobi, younger brother of the Minister of Information, Dr. Dora Akunyili, narrowly escaped being lynched as some of the jailbreakers reportedly forced their way into their cells to attack them but were protected by about 10 other inmates who volunteered to protect them.However, the Nnubia family raised an alarm yesterday alleging that the criminals may have been sponsored to kill the businessman and his manager.“We believe those people who are desperate to see that Nnubia and his manager, Okoli, do not regain their freedom and sent this group of boys to kill Nnubia and his manager in prison. Otherwise why should their fellow inmates attempt to attack them? If not for the 10 volunteers among the ATM that fought hard to prevent them, it would have been a sad story today,” one of Nnubia’s lawyers said yesterday.//9jabook sources learnt that the ATM inmates in G Ward initiated the jailbreak around 1.30am yesterday when they broke the ceiling of their ward, which later collapsed and from the roof top hundreds of them trooped out attacking the prison wardens. The source said some of the wardens who could not escape were held hostage by the violent inmates who asked them to say their last prayers, as they were going to be killed.From the G Ward, they marched to the main entrance gate which they forced open and provided unhindered access to the fleeing inmates some of whom have spent about three years in the prison, awaiting trial.Hundreds of them were said to have fled even when armed prison guards outside the premises reportedly released several shots into the air to dissuade them.In the process, some of who were not interested in escaping, the source further disclosed, started rioting inside the prison. They moved to the E and M Wards also occupied by ATM and forced the gates open, thus increasing their number as they marched to other wards including Ward D and the Condemned Criminals (CC) Ward.Death row inmates shun jailbreakThey were however disappointed when the ‘officials’ and inmates of Ward D and their 76 colleagues in the CC Ward resisted them, saying they were not ready to engage the government in a battle since they were sure that the fleeing inmates would be apprehended in the long run.//It was further learnt that the riot became violent when some of the inmates resorted to stealing their colleagues’ money and raping the female prisoners. All the 36 female inmates were reportedly gang-raped by till dawn and most of them were seen lying naked in different locations within the prison yard yesterday morning before the authorities rushed them to an undisclosed hospital for treatment.“Only one mentally-deranged female inmate in a separate cell was left untouched”, said the source who described the treatment meted to the female prisoners as “very dehumanising”.An unconfirmed prison source said about 50 ATM inmates were arrested outside the prison yard through the combined effort of the prison guards and policemen from the nearby Central Police Station.During the riot, the office of the Chief Warder was vandalised by the prisoners who removed the green regalia which prisoners wear each time they are to attend court session and set them ablaze, while one of the rooms in the welfare block built with bricks was razed. The roof of the building was seriously damaged.Why inmates broke jail, by Prisons bossComptroller-General of Nigeria Prisons, Olushola Ogundipe, yesterday gave a graphic account of the tragic of the jailbreak to reporters and attributed the ugly development to agitation of prisoners arising from slow judicial processes, saying the 734 awaiting trial inmates, male and female “have been agitated because of slow judicial process”.He expressed delight that the state Chief Judge, Innocent Umezulike, on May 28, visited Nsukka Prisons where he took up some jail cases of inmates rather than waiting for the cases to be treated in court, recalling that on May 26 the CJ accompanied by 12 judges, also performed similar function (jail delivery) at the Enugu Prisons.//He said: “But you know, having over 700 Awating Trial Inmates, it takes a long time and so the Chief Judge promised coming back on the 5th of June this year for another set of jail delivery. You know inmates, everybody wants his case to be heard as soon as possible. And so this agitation was the primary cause of this jailbreak; around midnight, they broke the ceiling, got to the yard; broke down some of the security measures and there was a massive escape of prisoners.”130 escapee recapturedOgundipe said the run-away inmates were not so lucky as the security men on duty were quite alert and were able to get help from the army, police and the Civil Defence, who all teamed up to ensure that “Enugu city is not bombarded with escaped prison inmates.”So far, he said, the squad of security operatives had recaptured 130 escapees while trailing 23 others.“As I am talking to you, about 150 inmates awaiting trial broke their cells and we were able to recapture with the help of the police and other security operatives 130 immediately. And presently, the remaining 20 we are on their trail, we are still bringing them back,” he said.He added: “As I am talking to you, the situation is fully under control. The yard is calm. I have gone round and I have seen those in the hospital; they are being treated. I assure you that everything is under control.”According to him, not even one convicted inmate or any of the condemned ones escaped. “We have 77 inmates on the death row. I must commend them that not a single one of them participated in the jail break,” he explained.On prison reform, he said the authorities of the prisons were concentrating on the inmates.“Presently, part of the report is that you have the Attorney-General of the Federation engaging some lawyers to take up cases of indigent inmates. This has been going on all over the federation,” he said.The prison, Ogundipe said, was inherited from the British Colonial Masters, who commissioned the prison block on February 5, 1926, noting that the prison administration has been putting some new structures to improve on what the colonialists left.“The problem we have is that we are battling with archaic structures. The federal government is trying its best. If you look inside the yard you will see that we are putting up a storey building to replace the old ones,” he said.
Comments