The Federal Prisons in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, and Minna, the Niger State capital, recently came under heavy attack by yet to be identified gunmen. The breach of security led to the escape of hundreds of inmates from both corrective facilities. In the Ado Ekiti incident, the gunmen reportedly used explosive devices and other dangerous weapons which claimed the life of a prison official and 20 security dogs. About 320 inmates escaped out which 46 were later recaptured. At least 274 of the inmates were reported to be still at large by the prison authorities. Even while the dust raised by the attack on Ado Ekiti prison was yet to settle, other gunmen, last Saturday, December 6, stormed the Federal Maximum Prison in Minna, and freed 200 inmates. The wardens were overpowered, with many injured and rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, Minna, for treatment.
As has been the case in many other cases of attacks on prisons in the country, the sponsors and perpetrators of the two attacks are yet to be identified or apprehended. The frequent attacks on the nation’s prisons have become a serious security concern. They are not only making nonsense of the jail sentences and custodial orders duly imposed on offenders by the courts, they pose a security threat to the victims of the prisoners and others whose testimonies in the courts led to their incarceration.
No government anywhere in the world will toy with the security of its prisons, and Nigeria should not be an exception. It has become necessary to conduct a security audit of all the prisons in the country to determine the measures that they require to safeguard them against incessant attacks. We must do everything to protect these facilities.
Beyond securing the prisons, however, is the need to find out those behind the flagrant attacks on them. So many attacks have occurred, including the one on the prison in Kogi State, without anyone brought to account for them.
It is heartening that the Federal Government has set up a panel of enquiry to investigate the attack on the Ekiti Prison. The probe is necessary, and must be thorough. This is in view of its scope, as it involved about 60 heavily armed gunmen in seven Hilux vehicles. Unarguably, the use of explosives in the ferocious attack, which is suggestive of a terrorist act, is a troubling new dimension to jailbreaks in the country. The investigation of the attacks should, however, be devoid of politics and blame trading.
This is more so as the two major political parties in Ekiti State – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) – are already trading accusations over the attack. The best thing to do is to make the probe multi-dimensional. It should look at every layer of suspicion. Nothing should be left to chance.
Beyond the investigations, the attacks on these penitentiaries should be a wake-up call for prison reforms. The nation could face dire consequences if the problems facing the prisons are not properly addressed. There is no doubt that our prisons have become vulnerable and the living condition of inmates negates the basic objectives of the criminal justice system.
We need to look again into the problem of delayed justice. The number of awaiting trial inmates, which far outstrips that of the convicted prisoners, needs to be urgently addressed. It is one of the major causes of congestion and the poor living condition in the prisons which breeds desperation to escape by inmates. The appropriate authorities must design ways to stop the propensity of our judicial system to indiscriminately dump suspects in cells and abandon them without trial.
Nigeria should learn the necessary lessons from these attacks and design strategies to ensure that they do not recur.
