Prison breaks on the rise in the north
They overpowered the few wardens around and the jealously-guarded gate was forced open. The protesters forced their way into the prisons and provided escape routes for the inmates before setting fire on the administrative block, two vehicles and a motorcycle parked at the gate of the prisons. But after the mob left the prison and […]
They overpowered the few wardens around and the jealously-guarded gate was forced open. The protesters forced their way into the prisons and provided escape routes for the inmates before setting fire on the administrative block, two vehicles and a motorcycle parked at the gate of the prisons.
But after the mob left the prison and went on with their orgy of destruction, burning religious buildings, private homes of individuals and even maiming and killing, the glaring vulnerability of the prison that made it so easy for the mob to gain access and free hardened criminals who have been condemned for various offences was forgotten. What was in the headlines as the post-election violence assumed centre-stage in national discussion was the poor coordination of the Nigerian security network in forestalling the violence and of how poorly the Nigerian security had acted to protect peoples’ lives and property. Even this debate has since been overtaken by a lot of finger-pointing trying to blame the opposition or some individuals within it for orchestrating the violence.
This willful negligence came with a price, when after some of the rioters were successfully apprehended and hounded into prisons in the states where there were unrests, the vulnerability of the Nigerian prison was once again exposed. As the rioters were rounded in Yola, where there was also unrest like Zaria, they swelled the ranks of the prison population. The conditions in the Yola Prison, like most Nigerian prisons was already bad enough. With the influx of new inmates things got to a breaking point and the riot that ensued in the Yola prison was inevitable. Inmates began protesting about congestion and about the poor living condition, breaking prison doors and wreaking destruction on the facility. By the time the riot in the prison was tamed, some inmates have successfully been able to escape the confines of the facility. Two other inmates who tried escaping were shot in the leg and brought back. The situation in the prison still remains fragile at the moment.
While the recent election riots have served to expose the vulnerability of the Zaria and Yola prisons, events in the recent past, especially the Boko Haram insurgency witnessed in Bauchi and Maiduguri had exposed how poorly secured the central prison in both states have been. In one of the largest prison breaks ever witnessed in the history of Nigeria, suspected Boko Haram members had stormed the Bauchi prison in September last year and freed about 765 inmates in a commando-style operation. The mission of the militants who broke into the prison was to free their 173 members who have earlier been arrested by security forces in a raid on their enclave. The Boko Haram attack on the prison is the second episode of such an attack on the prison facility.
Earlier in 1992, a gunman who was convicted and jailed for robbery in the Jos prison, Jerry Freshman, managed to escape from his prison captivity in Jos and Rambo-style made his way to the Bauchi prison where his brother and partner in crime was also held in captivity. He stormed the Bauchi facility and freed the prisoner. Both Jerry and his brother were arrested for armed robbery and taken to separate prison facilities for security reasons, but Jerry still managed to break the security in the two facilities. Both of them were later ambushed along the Jos Road by the military and killed.
In a way, the prison breaks which have been on the rise in recent times, especially in prisons located in the north, is a ridiculing of the security facilities that were built to house some of the dangerous people that constitute harm to the society. Dr Ango Ladan, psychologist and Dean School of Education in the Federal College of Education (FCE) Zaria has reason to be worried with the jail break in Zaria during the elections riots. He was instrumental to the imprisonment of an escaped inmate whom he apprehended after he broke into his home. “Having escaped now that person can decide to harm me,” says Dr. Ladan. “You can see that I am under psychological and physical threats as a result of the jail break.”
There are many like Dr. Ladan who will feel the pressure of such threats, especially those in the security forces who were instrumental to the arrest and imprisonment of some of the inmates. Even though no direct connection has yet been established, in Maiduguri where there have been jail breaks by militants there has been a rise in the number of targeted killings of policemen in the state by militant groups.
Dr. Ladan gives the security threat a wider context when he says: “They can destroy many businesses by stealing, vandalising or even killing some entrepreneurs. The jail break would pose a psychological problem to the society because people would not feel safe with criminals in their midst.”
In sympathy to the prison authorities the security breaches have largely resulted from external influences in the environment where they are located. Before, it was militants that the prison authorities live in fear of. Now added to that are mobs with axes to grind with the Nigerian State who free prisoners from captivity to register their grievances.
Useini Abubakar Lema, Comptroller of the Zaria prison now makes an impassioned plea for the relocation of the prison from inside the city to its outskirts where various security outfits are stationed and could be relied upon to act fast in the event of a major break as happened during the riots. He said: “We have another prison at the outskirt of Zaria city and that is where we are right now taking the returnees. We feel that if the main prison would be relocated to Waje Prisons it would enhance its security because in that area we have a unit of mobile police and headquarters of conventional police. We also have a Military police barracks at Basawa as well as Military Depot in Sabon Gari, which are not far from the Waje Prisons. With this security outfits, you would see that it would be difficult for anybody to attempt breaking our prisons.”
But internal conditions have also contributed to the security breaches in the prisons. While in the past human rights groups make a plea for an efficient justice system that will ensure that criminal suspects are promptly charged to court and their case dispensed with so as to reduce the hoard of awaiting trial suspects detained in Nigerian prisons- some suspects awaiting trial for over a decade- national security will make that plea more imperative at the moment, as overcrowding and prisoner discontent is fuelling revolts within the prison. This much is the case with prisons in Adamawa State where the Yola and Jimeta prisons are located. Just reminiscent of last week’s riot in the Yola prison where a yet to be accounted number of prisoners escaped, in the Jimeta Prison last year about 485 prisoners attempted to escape after rioting over scarcity of water which affected their feeding arrangement. Just like the Yola Prison riots the prisoners in Jimeta Prison broke the locks to cells and overpowered the guards. They also broke into the workshops and armed themselves with dangerous weapons. As the dust begins to settle over the latest prison break in the state, the Adamawa State Comptroller of Prison, Mr Andrew Barka said of the situation, “We are taking stock and checking the prison cells to ascertain the whole situation.”
A slight consolation in the episodes of prison breaks is the prisoners who willingly return on their own after their escape. After the Bauchi jail break last year, 283 inmates returned, without prompting. Some of the returnees are those who nearly completed their sentence. In the Zaria prison break about 46 prisoners also returned on their own volition.
The Zaria comptroller of prison said, “There wouldn’t be any punishment for the inmates that escaped because they were forced to escape and since some of them have started returning, we hope all of them would return very soon. What would happen to the inmates is that those who are awaiting trial would be taken to court for continuation of their trial while those who are serving jail term would continue with their various terms.”
The prison authorities are now working with traditional rulers to help secure information that may help in the arrest of some of the escapees and return them back to prison says the Senior Special Assistant on Political matters to Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State. He says: “The government has taken adequate security measures to forestall future occurrence. We have beefed up securities in all the prisons in Bauchi State. Government has directed all traditional rulers including ward heads and village heads to help the security with useful information. But still there are others at large.” Nigerian citizens watch on as the various dramas unfold, with bated breath.