From Fred Itua, Abuja
The rising cases of jail breaks in Nigeria generated anger in the Senate, yesterday, as Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, noted that there had been more jailbreaks across the country since what he called deceitful change from Nigeria Prisons Service to Nigeria Correctional Service.
He took advantage of the consideration of a bill for the amendment of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC)Act to draw attention to the alleged deceit in the adoption of the name, Nigeria Correctional Service.
“Since the adoption of that name, we have had more jailbreaks. Laws are meant to punish and to correct. If by the time you are convicted and you are sent to prison, you are even meant to learn skill and ethical reorientation and all that, it is not only when we specifically call it a correctional centre and yet we are not correcting anything.
“I support the idea of having a thorough examination of the Bill for the amendment of RMAFC Act to avoid making the same mistake we made in coming up with the Correctional Services as a name,” he said.
Since 2019, no fewer than 10 jailbreaks have occurred since the name was changed from the Nigerian Prisons Service to the Nigerian Correctional Service by President Muhammadu Buhari on August 15, 2019 after signing the Nigerian Correctional Service Act of 2019 into law.
Between 2021 and 2022, no fewer than eight prison outbreaks were recorded in Nigeria with over 4,000 escapee inmates.
Five prison breaks occurred in 2021 while three occurred in 2022 across the nation. It is interesting to note that 18 cases of jailbreaks occurred between 2015 to 2022 in Nigeria.
A further look at the timeline of various prison breaks across the country showed that on 5 April, 2021, 1,844 inmates escaped Owerri correctional centre, Imo state, after gunmen attacked the facility.
Also on July 8, 2021, four awaiting trial suspects escaped from Jos custodial centre in Plateau state.
Another jailbreak occurred on 13 September, 2021, at Kabba Correctional Centre, Kogi state, where over 2,400 inmates were freed.
Also on 22 October, 2021, gunmen attacked Abolongo medium-security custodial centre, Oyo State. On November 28, 2021, 262 inmates escaped from Jos correctional centre, Plateau state, after gunmen invaded the facility. Nine inmates were killed, while 252 inmates were at large according to government officials. On July 5, 2022, 879 inmates, including 64 terrorists, escaped from Kuje Prison, FCT.