Oshiomhole: Why Inmates Escaped from 100 Years Old Suleja Mud-built Prisons

•Hails minister’s efforts in revamping prisons

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja
 

The Senate Committee Chairman on Interior, Adams Oshiomhole, yesterday, explained that the reason some inmates escaped recently from the Suleja Medium Security Custodial Centre was not as a result of prisonbreak but a collapse of the walls of the facility built with mud over 100 years ago.

Oshiomhole gave the explanation while briefing journalists shortly after a closed door session with the Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo.

There was a reported case of jailbreak in Suleja, Niger State on April 24, during which 119 inmates escaped from the correctional facility.

The minister had, during his visit to the affected facility, two weeks ago, disclosed that the government was planning to relocate some correctional centres to create better space, security and infrastructures.

Oshiomhole, however, told journalists that  the efforts by the  Minister and the security agencies had helped in re-arresting some of the fleeing inmates, saying more would be tracked in the coming days.

“I know exactly that this particular prison was built in 1914. I think that was the year of amalgamation of Southern and Northern Nigeria for about 200 people. And they now have about 419 inmates. And some of these places were built with mud.

“It was not really a jailbreak. You had heavy rainfall, a storm, and then the wall fell, and then the roof, even if you were in your private house and it is raining and you have a storm and your roof is gone and your walls come down, you will remain in the place?

“So, naturally, people find escape. The good news is that they have what it takes to retrack them. And they have already re-arrested some of them, and the effort is still ongoing to get the rest people,” Oshiomhole said.

He commended the presentation of Tunji-Ojo  during the closed door session, saying, “we are satisfied, very satisfied with the Minister’s briefing”

The minister, on his part, said the lawmakers had  been fully briefed appropriately about the incident  in Suleja Prisons, and possible solutions had been suggested during the closed door session, saying everything was under control.

“We spoke about the root cause of the matter. What happened. We spoke about what we are doing, which I won’t be able to say here for security reasons. We also discussed about solutions in terms of making sure that this doesn’t happen again.

“I can tell you, the federal government is in control of this, everything is under control. Mr. President, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, is actually putting in everything through the Ministry of Interior and the Nigerian Correctional Services, to make sure that there is no reoccurrence,” he said.