Prison-breaks: NCS to publish names, pictures of over 1,500 fleeing inmates
The Nigerian Correctional Service has said it will publish the names and pictures of over 1,500 inmates who escaped from the custodial facilities in Benin and Oko, Edo State, and in Okitipupa, Ondo State, on Monday and Thursday, respectively.
The NCoS spokesman, DCC, Austin Njoku, said the service was equally mobilising various security and intelligence resources to recapture the fleeing inmates.
While 1,993 inmates broke out of the two custodial centres in Edo State, 58 reportedly escaped from the Ondo correctional facility.
The inmates who included convicts serving time for various crimes and condemned persons on death row were released by suspected hoodlums who took advantage of the #EndSARS protests.
The Edo State custodial centres had come under attack from the suspected hoodlums who freed the inmates and also looted the armoury of a nearby police station carting away five rifles.
The police said 12 suspects were arrested in connection with the incident while the stolen rifles had been recovered.
A similar attack targeted at the Ikoyi correctional on Thursday failed as security operatives quickly mobilised to the facility and foiled the attempted jailbreak.
Giving an update on the incidents on Friday, Njoku urged Nigerians to provide information on the fugitives who he described as dangerous elements.
He stated, “We are mobilising the people and the press for information because to inject the number of such people into the society is a problem. Imagine over 1,000 criminals injected into society?
“We are mobilising the intelligence agencies, the police and the DSS (Department of State Services). We are publishing their names and pictures very soon.”
Njoku added that he did not have the number of inmates already rearrested.
Meanwhile, 25 inmates who escaped from Oko and Sapele Road Correctional Centre when hoodlums broke into the facilities have voluntarily returned to the centres and surrendered themselves to the authorities.
It brings to 207 the number of prisoners who have been recaptured, returned or secured.
One of the inmates, who gave his name as Alex Ose, 40, a taxi driver, said that he had been awaiting trial since 2014 when he was arrested for armed robbery in Benin, Edo State capital. Punch
