Some staff of the Nigerian Prisons Service have also been sacked as a result of the issues that led to the riots and the handling thereof.
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Some of the inmates who managed to speak to outsiders, were reported to have said: “We do not know what they want to do with us, some people are on the ground now rolling and crying”.
There is commotion at Kuje Prison, Abuja, following “indiscriminate gunshots” fired by officials of the Nigerian Prison Service (NPS).
On July 30, not less than 13 inmates escaped from Koton Karfe prison in Kogi State.
In the wake of the incessant escape of prisoners from some prisons in the country, the CGP, Ja’afaru Ahmed on the 2nd of August, 2016 convened an emergency meeting of Command Officers and 241 officers in charge prisons across the country to reassess security measures for safe keeping of prisoners.
The Comptroller of Prisons, Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Command, Daniel Odaro, has in a statement on Monday confirmed that there was sporadic shutting by men of the command in Kuje prison but added that, “Nobody was shot at”.
His words, “Nobody was shot at”.
He explained that a “disagreement” ensued at about 10.30am on Monday, when some inmates resisted the routine search in their cells.
“It was not the whole prison that was involved”.
“We were trying to search the blocks, which is a tradition in prisons all over the world in order to discover illegal items that have been brought in through trafficking but some of the inmates prevented our officers from searching their block”. “I will revert to you as soon we get more detail from our men on the ground”. In fact the inmates who were involved have apologised for their unruly behaviour.
“Inmates who were due for courts had been conveyed to courts before the incident”. Some of the inmates complained that they were dying.
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Also this month, there have been jailbreaks at the Abakaliki Prisons in Ebonyi state and the Nsukka Prison in Enugu state.
