#EndSARS: FG silence suspicious as lawyer calls Edo prison break mind-boggling

 

BY NICHOLAS ABE

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The relative ease with which two prison facilities in Benin, Edo State capital, were attacked and inmates freed, has left tongues wagging about possible insider conspiracy.

The development is further made worse by silence on the part of the Nigerian Correctional Service, as no official statement has been issued by the service to clarify issues surrounding the prison break blamed on hoodlums who hijacked the #EndSARS protest in Benin.

Two persons reportedly lost their lives in the mayhem that enveloped Benin while over a thousand prisoners were said to have escaped from the facilities, leading to the state government imposing an indefinite 24-hour curfew on the state, starting 4pm Monday.

Also, the Nigeria Police Force reported attacks on its facilities at Ugbekun Police Station, Oba Market Police Station and Idogbo Police Post by “persons posing as #ENDSARS.”

The police on its Twitter handle Monday said: “The extent of damage cannot be ascertained at the moment but report indicates that the protesters carted away arms and ammunition from the armoury and freed the suspects in custody before setting some of the facilities ablaze.”

But some Nigerians who reacted to the prison break and police response to attacks on its facilities picked holes in the accounts.

READ: #EndSARS: Edo govt imposes 24-hour curfew as 2 killed in prison break

A Twitter user, #OurFavEndSARSDoc @DrOlufunmilayo responded: “I predicted this. They are now accusing #Endsars of attacking police stations. All this is to build up a narrative of anarchistic movement and use force/guns to start killing people. This is shameful. You know no peaceful protester attacked your station. You did it yourselves.

“Prisoners released, No police officer in sight, No prison warden in sight. Till now, no prison official sacked. No police officials summoned. There has never been a govt in the history of this country that is so committed to incompetence and oppression like this. #EndSARS.”

Another Twitter user, Four-eyed Edo Boy™ @Alex_Houseof308, raised series of queries: “There’s a police station not far from the prison, why no response? Why was no single shot fired from inside the prison? Even the prisoners gan gan, why dem no wear uniform? Who give them jersey, polo and jeans? Where dem get ladder take fly fence? So many questions #EndSARS.”

A Benin-based lawyer, Jefferson Uwoghiren, described the attack on the prison facilities as avoidable, if only the government had heeded advise from well-meaning citizens.

“This stickly implosive action today, would have been avoided if our unceasing advice and admonitions have been considered. There is no strategic or beneficial reason for the continuing operation of Benin Prison, Sapele Road and Oko Prison, Airport Road, in the heart of Benin City!!!! A complete waste of space.

“Government should close these prisons, turn the land into a remarkable use, preferably a school, and build a new one 25 kilometres outside Benin. Jailhouse proximity to courts is no excuse for the dangerous gambits we play with the citizens anytime there is a riot in town.

“We don’t want jailhouses in our City. We don’t want felonious characters in our City. We want Schools and Parks!!! Enough is Enough,” Barrister Uwoghiren said in a statement issued Monday.

READ: Shehu Sani fires! “Frame-up cannot silence me!”

He described videos of the prison attack as mind-boggling and shocking. According to him, “This is the monstrously mind-boggling video of convicted armed robbers, rapists, murderers, confident tricksters, drug dealers, ritualists, masters and mistresses of mayhems, escaping from Oko Prison, Benin City today, in consequences of #EndSARS riots. Over 1,000 convicted and Awaiting Trial Inmates jubilantly strolled into the City, like heroes coming home in prisoners exchange program.

“It’s shocking how they promptly fused and melted like butter with the crowd, into the city, into our homes, and into our surrounding bushes since morning.  This record-breaking jail break is horrendously made worse, by the ominous silence of the prison authority, warders, sorry nothing correctional about them. The overwhelming incompetence of the prison officers is detonatingly enabling by the official silence of all concerned.

“No report of recapture. No report of booty. No reassurance. No explanation. Yet danger looms so large out there. A fugitive from justice is more dangerous than a snake, because the stakes are deadly. A time bomb.”