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At least 50 inmates escaped from a prison in southern Nigeria after some of them dismantled heavy security barriers and overpowered their jailers, police said Thursday.
LAGOS, Sept. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- At least 50 inmates escaped from a prison in southern Nigeria after some of them dismantled heavy security barriers and overpowered their jailers, police said Thursday.
The jailbreak occurred Tuesday afternoon in the Auchi prison of Edo state as the inmates numbering 200 protested against alleged poor feeding and poor conditions.
The act reportedly in a few minutes ran up to an uprising when they attacked prison officials with dangerous weapons and then threw open the prison gate for a massive jailbreak. No life was lost in the jailbreak.
"It's true that we have a jailbreak. The police have already taken over the case. We have made a number of re-arrests, about 10 yesterday afternoon," Edo state police spokesman Peter Ogboi told Xinhua by phone.
"We are equally working in conjunction with the prison service to identify those breaking from the Auchi prison," Ogboi said, adding "we are equally working with the communities and other interested groups around Auchi to ensure more were re-arrested."
Almost all newspapers in Nigeria however put the number of the escapees at between 100 and 120. Ogboi said they were speculative numbers by the media but admitted that the prison authorities had actually not given them the accurate figures.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, has in the past few months witnessed a spate of jailbreaks.
On June 17, more than 200 inmates escaped from two jails in the country's resistive oil-rich Niger Delta region. Several of them were shot dead as police opened fire to quell the riot.
Last week, at least three inmates were killed in a prison riot in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos as some of the inmates refused to be transferred to other jails. Enditem