The Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) has confirmed that there was a jailbreak in the Kuje maximum Prison on Friday night but said it was yet to find out if any inmate escaped or not, but that Charles Okah is still in custody.
Spokesperson of the prisons service, Mr. Francis Enobore reportedly told Daily Trust on the phone that there was an “incident” at the prison on Friday night, June 24, 2016.
Enobore, debunked the reports that a brother of Henry Okah, jailed leader of the Movement For The Emancipation of Niger Delta, MEND, Charles Okah escaped during the jailbreak.
“Yes there was an incident yesterday, but Okah was not involved,” he said.
“It is not true, Charles Okah is still in custody. I have been in touch with our men in the prison facility and there is nothing like that [Okah escaping],” Enobore said.
“The comptroller of prisons has ordered an investigation and that is going on. We want to know if anybody escaped and if yes, what are their identities,” he added.
The prisons spokesperson promised an official statement once the preliminary investigation is concluded.
Okah had been on trial in Abuja for the 2010 Independence Day bombing that killed 27 people.
Charles Okah Not Involved – Prison Source Reveals
An earlier news report said that Charles Okah, a brother of Henry Okah, jailed leader of the defunct Movement For the Emancipation of Niger Delta, MEND, had escaped from Kuje Prison in Abuja.
Signal, reports that a prison inmate informed the online newspaper that Mr. Okah escaped Friday, June 24, 2016, night by simply scaling the prison walls of the prison around 7:45pm Nigerian time.
Although the prison authorities say they are yet to ascertain if any prisoner escaped, fresh information available to the online newspaper indicates that two inmates standing trial for murder escaped from the maximum prison on Friday night.
The escaped inmates are Maxwell Ajukwu and Solomon Amodu and both are standing trial for the alleged kidnapping and murder of Mrs. Edith Chinedu Aliyu.
The late Mrs. Aliyu was a proprietress of Chelson Group of Schools and chief executive officer of Grant Micro Finance Bank, Gwagwalada, Abuja.
The prison inmate, who spoke to Signal on condition of anonymity, said that the escapees capitalizing on security lapses during Muslim prayers which were happening at about that time.
“Someone threw a rope over the fence from the other side. That was how they escaped,” the inmate said, indicating outside help in the jailbreak.
Security agencies have been put on alert with a massive manhunt in progress to find and re-arrest the prison escapees.
