About four prisoners have escaped from Jos Prison on Wednesday night around 10 pm to 11 pm, this medium learned that it happened when heavy suspected armed gunmen stormed the prison yard and aided their colleagues to escape while shooting sporadically in the air.
The information available to this medium revealed that those who escaped were among the ones that escaped on their way while being to be taken to High Court, Barkin Ladi, who was arrested and arraigned before a magistrates’ court in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of the state last year.
It was gathered that some herdsmen then stormed the court and overpowered the men of Correctional Service who brought them to court and set them free. They were, however, later rearrested by a combined team of security agencies.
However, after their re-arrests, they were arraigned in Jos, North Local Government Council to avoid casualties and it was ordered that they should be kept at the Jos correctional center.
The accused persons were alleged to have committed various degrees of criminal offenses punishable under sections 309 ,227,284 & culpable homicide, intimidation, kidnapping, and cattle rustling within Jos and its environs.
It is on anote that Jos correctional center is overcrowded with a higher number of awaiting trial , condemned criminals, and those that are serving their jail.
They also complained of poor feeding, unhealthy rooms and most of the inmates are sleeping on the bare floor when they raised the alarm that some of the rooms stink with human excretions very close to baths rooms.
Besides this ugly development, witness on Wednesday, there was pandemonium and confusion at the Jos correctional center with unknown gunmen storming the yard to release some of their members to escape.
It was gathered that the Jos correctional center is described as one of the worst in Nigeria where inmates sleep on ground, poor feeding, unhealthy environment without training center to improve the conditions of the inmates.
Spokesman of the Plateau State Command of the correctional centre, Mr. Geoffrey Longdien, confirmed the incident, saying “four inmates of the correctional centre escaped in the early hours of Thursday at the center.”
He added that “investigation is ongoing and after we get the full details of the incident, we shall brief the press.”
Source: Universal Reporters
