Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, has asked the Federal Government to set up a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the circumstances surrounding the jailbreak at Koton Karfe Prison Yard in the state. The governor, who expressed shock over the incessant incident at the prison yard, said “this particular attack in early hours of Saturday, July 30, 2016, seems to be a conspiracy between insiders and criminals who came to free the inmates.”
No fewer than 13 inmates were said to have escaped from the federal prison, even as prison officials disappeared when the governor visited the scene. This brings to three times the Koton Karfe Federal Prisons has witnessed jailbreaks in recent history. The first was 2013, the second one was 2014 and this one.
According to information offered by some junior officers, who begged not to be mentioned on the record, the inmates made some remarkable marks on the inside walls, which they scaled to freedom with the help of blankets.
An officer of the prison, simply called ACP Koso, refused to volunteer any information about what happened.
Governor Bello, who visited the prison with the Kogi State Commissioner of Police, Director of State Secret Service and top security officials of the state, was not allowed into the prison yard.
The governor, who has spent substantial resources on security in the state, vowed to unearth the mystery behind the jailbreak, more so that the incident happened at 3am while security was only beefed up around the prison at 5.30am.
It would be recalled that some suspected kidnappers in army uniform were sent to Koton Karfe Federal Prison on Friday to be brought to court by September 1, 2016. It is still unclear if the escapees include this particular set of suspects.
The governor called on the Federal Government to investigate the matter and punish those officials suspected to be aiding criminals to escape from the prisons.