Ekiti prison attack: 46 inmates recaptured, says minister

The Minister of Interior, Mr. Patrick Moro, has said 46 of the 326 inmates, who escaped from the Ado Ekiti Prison have been recaptured by the Nigerian Prisons Service. The prison was attacked by gunmen on Sunday.

Moro said this at the Passport Office in Ikoyi, Lagos State, during the opening of 12 ultra modern toilets built by the United Bank for Africa Foundation. He said a panel had commenced investigations into the siege, which reportedly claimed the life of a prison official. He said, “The preliminary report I have is that 320 of 436 inmates escaped from the prison. “About 46 of them have been recaptured and the search is going on. The Nigerian Prisons Service is also going from one police station to another to recover inmates who have been arrested by other security agencies. “At the appropriate time, we will be able to give all the figures. “Desperate people, whose friends and accomplices were in jail, attempted to forcefully release them. Luckily, only the awaiting trial inmates section was attacked. “I think what the attack has brought to the fore is the need to reinforce perimeter fencing and this is being done in the North now. “At the moment, I do not want to attribute the occurrence in Ado Ekiti to either a conspiracy theory or attack by insurgents. I have requested that a multi-sectional investigative panel be put in place to find out the culpability or otherwise of those suspected to be involved.” While appreciating the foundation, the Deputy Comptroller of Immigration in the Passport Office, Mrs. Modupe Anyalechi, said the new toilets would be of great benefit. She said, “UBA has keyed into the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan by constructing this all important facility for the use of both officers and applicants as part of its corporate social responsibilities. Before the construction of this modern facility, applicants and officers here had depended on just four dilapidated rooms for conveniences. It is therefore heart- warming that with these 12 new toilets, both staff and applicants will feel more at home while at work or processing their passports.” The Managing Director of the foundation, Ijeoma Aso, said the facility was provided as a response to the alarm raised by the United Nations Children’s Fund. “UNICEF raised the alarm recently that 119 million Nigerians have no access to safe toilets while 20 million Nigerians are estimated to be defecating in the open. This has implications on hygiene and can cause several diseases,” she said. At the occasion was the Deputy Commandant General for Works and Procurement, Martins Abechi who represented the DG of the agency, D.S. Parradang.