The gang was said to have come to the prison premises in seven Hilux trucks, brandishing dangerous weapons such as cudgels, cutlasses, AK 47 rifles, charms and chanting ‘Allahu Akbar’ as they shot sporadically into the air.
The gunshots and
the bombing were so intense that the inmates had to run in different directions
to prevent being hit by stray bullets.
The
assailants who were said to be about 60, had stormed the prisons located at
Afao Ekiti Road, Ado Ekiti on Sunday night at about 10.30pm.They were said to
have freed their wounded colleagues who were earlier remanded in the prison by
authorities. The number of those freed could not, however, be ascertained at
the time of this report.
A local
leader of the Odua Peoples Congress, OPC, Mr Ade Adeniyi (Apase) was at the
prison at the time of the attack. He remained inside the prison even as other
inmates fled. The prison is the only one in Ekiti State.
The
Comptroller of Prison, Ekiti State, Mr.
Kehinde Fadipe , who later confirmed the attack, but denied loss of life adding
that Adeniyi Adedipe, was still in
custody.
“We are
moving around to assess the situation. It was not a jail break but an attack on
the prison. The main entrance of the prison was blown up.
“What
happened is that we were attacked from outside not from within, they came
massively with different weapons, they attacked our men on duty, and we have
been here since 10.30 yesterday Sunday.”
On those that
escaped from prison, the comptroller said his men were already out to re-arrest
inmates that escaped during the attack.
He said he
had no Boko Haram member in the prison to warrant attack from the Islamic sect,
saying it would be preposterous to draw conclusion now on where the attack
actually came.
He equally
failed to give the figure of those that escaped and those that had returned
into the prisons on their own.The
Comptroller added that some of the escaped inmates “have been recaptured and
kept in police cells.
I suspect terrorist attack
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