Fourteen of the 47 inmates that escaped from Ikot Ekpene Prison in Akwa Ibom following a jailbreak on Wednesday have been arrested.
The Akwa Ibom Controller of Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS), Mr Alex Oditah, made this known on Thursday.
Said he: “Some inmates escaped from Ikot Ekpene prison on December 27, at about12.45 p.m. To ascertain the total number of those that escaped we had to do headcount.
“We discovered that 47 inmates had escaped from the custody. Immediately, search party swung into action and 14 were recaptured,” Oditah said.
READ ALSO: Fuel crisis: Senate suspends recess, summons Kachikwu, Baru, others
It would be recalled that no fewer than four prisoners were shot dead in the jailbreak.
Some prisoners were reported to have seized an axe from a fellow inmate attached to the kitchen, inflicted a deep cut to his head in the process and immediately made for the rear entrance to the prison.
According to the Public Relations Officer of the Nigerian Prisons, Akwa Ibom State Command, ASP Ogbajie J. Ogbajie, the inmates “broke the door with the axe and engaged the staff that chased after them in battle. At the end of the scuffle, 4 of them that sustained gun shots lost their lives while 7 were recaptured.”
Following the development, Ogbajie disclosed, Oditah ordered an investigation into the circumstance surrounding the incident.
