The jailbreaks are one too many. The authorities should look into the conditions of the prisons
No fewer than eight inmates were reportedly killed with scores of others wounded in Calabar prison in a recent attempted jail-break. It was foiled by officers and men of the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) with the support of the army and the police. According to media reports, on the night of February 20, 2015, two cells housing some awaiting trial prisoners were opened, as a normal routine, for the inmates to take their bath. Having earlier expressed frustrations at being incarcerated for a long period without trial, some of them pounced on the NPS staff. Other inmates soon joined, destroying all the adjoining doors before gaining access to the armoury where they carted away some weapons and ammunitions.
In the ensuing melee, some of the prisoners went to the rear of the perimeter fence to which they fired several shots to weaken the blocks. Thereafter, they used a concrete slab to hit open the weakened wall, making large hole through which they jumped out while still firing shots. But with reinforcement from the police and the army, the fleeing inmates were eventually engaged in a gun battle. At the end, eight of the inmates were reported killed while 17 were injured. Four Prison staff were also injured with one of them having serious wounds. The authorities would later report that no prisoner escaped and that all the stolen rifles were recovered.
While we commend the gallantry of the prison officials on duty in Calabar on that day for the manner in which they handled the jailbreak, the authorities should worry about what is now becoming a growing trend. Across the country today, prisons where convicts and suspects were duly sent for punishment or custody have suddenly become sources of internal security threat, thanks to fire incidents, jailbreaks and armed terrorist attacks. It is indeed alarming that there have been over a dozen of such incidents within the last two years alone. Some of the places affected include Maiduguri, Kano, Bauchi, Akure, Enugu, Koton Karfe, and Oko Prisons in Benin City, amongst others. The incessant jailbreaks reached a critical point in February last year when armed hoodlums invaded Koton Karfe Prisons, Kogi State, and freed 119 inmates who successfully escaped, and only 43 were said to have been re-arrested.
As we have highlighted in the past, the rise in prison attacks could be traced to the growing influence of non-state actors like militants groups in the country which has led to the influx of arrested criminal suspects. Against the background that Nigerian prisons have been neglected over the years with little or no infrastructural development to match the increase in numbers of inmates, it stands to reason that there would always be crisis. In the recent case in Calabar, for instance, the trouble was said to have been instigated by some awaiting trial inmates who were complaining that they were tired of staying in prison without being taken to court. While nobody can, or should, justify jailbreaks, we must stress that by keeping people under lock and key for months and sometimes years, without trial, conditions have been created for them to take the laws into their own hands.
Therefore, it is important for the relevant authorities to investigate both the immediate and the remote causes of the Calabar jailbreak so that important lessons can be learned for the future. Similarly, there is the need to interrogate the ease with which prison guards are overwhelmed in the process of jailbreaks. It may also be necessary to deploy armed squads to flash-point prisons in the country and to instal various security gadgets to forestall future occurrences. But above all, awaiting trial inmates should not be made to spend lifetime in prison before they get justice.
