Ekiti Prison Invaded By Heavily Armed Men..Prisoners Escape

Panic gripped Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital Monday when news filtered into town that some  heavily armed gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram insurgents  attacked  the federal prisons in the state and freed some inmates.

The assailants, who were said to have besieged the facility at about 10.30 p.m. killed a prison official on guard, bombed  the main gate of the prison with the aid of rocket propel grenade  and dynamite, just as they killed all the 20 sniffer dogs tied in front of the gate.

Reliable sources confirmed to journalists that the gunmen, numbering about 60, arrived in Toyota Hilux trucks, brandishing dangerous weapons such as cudgels, cutlasses, AK 47 rifles, charms and  chanted ‘Allahu Akbar’ as they shot sporadically into the air .

The source added that the gunshots and the bombing were so deafening that the  inmates had to  run in different directions to prevent being mowed by the gun-wielding assailants.

The source confirmed that the  Minister of Interior, Mr. Abba Moro, was on his way to Ekiti to assess the situation.

However, when journalists visited the prison located along Ado –Afao road, they were not allowed entry  into the premises.

Early in the morning, a statement aired on the state radio had alleged that the action was carried out by All Progressive Congress (APC) thugs to free a leader of Oodua People’s Congress, Niyi Adedipe, who was imprisoned on the order of the court over the alleged murder of a former chairman of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Chief Omolafe Aderiye.

Denying the allegation, the party described the allegation as another ploy by the People Democratic Party (PDP) to tarnish the image of the APC in the state.

The Publicity Secretary of the party, Chief Taiwo Olatubosun, who spoke on the telephone said: “What shall we gain from doing that. We cannot do such things. It is not in our character to do such things.”

Olatubosun added: “Very soon the PDP and the governor will have to accuse God for running a clueless government and for their shortcoming.”

The APC spokesman said the government was talking from the “figment of its imagination,” asking: “Is it the APC that is in charge of the prison or the security of the state? It is the figment of their imagination that the APC is connected with the jail break. We don’t know anything about it.”

As journalists were waiting for briefing, one of the prisoners who escaped, walked in saying he ran out when he heard sporadic shooting at night but had to come back.  The state Controller  of Prison, Mr. Kehinde Fadipe, who later addressed journalists after much agitations from them confirmed the attack, but denied that any life was lost during the attack, starting that Adedipe, was still in their custody.

“We are moving around to assess the situation. It was not a jail break but an attack on the prison.The main entrance of the prison was broken.

“What happened is that we were attacked from outside not from within, they came massively with different weapons, they attacked our men on duty, and we have been here since 10.30 p.m. yesterday (Sunday),” he said.

On those who escaped from prison, the coutroller said his men were already out to re-arrest them.
He said he had no Boko Haram member in the prison to warrant attack from the Islamic sect, adding that it would be preposterous to draw conclusion now on where the attack actually came from.

Fadipe however, refused  to give the figure of those tha escaped and those that had returned into the prisons on their own.

Also a woman, crying profusely and held by some prison officials on both sides was seen as she was being led into the prison premises, which a source said was the wife of the official that was shot by the suspected Islamic sect.
The comptroller  added that some of the escaped inmates “have been recaptured and kept in police cells.”