By MOHAMMED MOMOH

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Although Nigeria has been dealing with a breakdown of its national security, the state of its prisons is now another thing to worry about, following a major and deadly prison break in October.

On the fateful day, one escapee whom authorities wanted, was considered most dangerous being a repeat offender and notorious jail breaker. In 2020 he was one of the 1,729 inmates that escaped from two Correctional Centres in Nigeria’s South South Edo state, trailed and killed the judge and the prosecutor that put him behind bars.

He was rearrested but the tragedy cannot be undone.

Then there was the jailbreaks in the wake of the national protests against the brutality of the police’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in 2020, which unleashed notorious criminals into the society.

On top of the murder of the judge and the prosecutor, the jailbreaks show lack of diligence in securing the national prisons and the poor management of inmates, especially record keeping.

In one year, October 2020 to October 2021, there have been eight attacks on the correctional centres in Ondo, Imo, Edo, Bauchi, Lagos, Kogi and Oyo states where thousands of inmates, some notorious criminals, escaped.

The Controller of Correctional Service, Lagos State Command, Adewale Adebisi, described the repeated attacks on prisons acts of terrorism.

In April 5, 2021, a jail break in Owerri in Imo state, according to minister of Interior Rauf Aregebesola, was ‘’the worst in the recent history of the country.’’ Criminals broke into the correctional facility with explosives and dynamite and freed about 1,844 inmates in an operation that lasted two hours.

In total, more than 4,369 inmates that have escaped from prisons across the country in one year, and are still on the loose because tracing them has proved difficult because of lack of biometrics and proper data to trace the prisoners.

Mop up

At a briefing in Abuja on November 11, 2021, Mr Aregbesola, said that 3,906 inmates who escaped from various custodial centres are still at large and only 984 had been recaptured.

The repeated attacks on jails also shows that the prisons are prone to easy break into being hosted in decrepit buildings going back to 1861, are structurally defective, poorly equipped and with inadequate security.

“The prison walls are high enough but we need to reinforce them. They can be blown up with explosives. The perimeter fencing is not barbed to deter criminals from having direct access to the wall.

“Some correctional centres have CCTVs but most of them are concentrated inside and cannot capture what is going on outside,’’ said Marcus Abiri, a contractor with the Correctional Centre.

The National President, Criminology and Security Practitioners Association of Nigeria, Williams Ekposon, said; “The Service does not have the means to strengthen access control and because these facilities are vulnerable, criminals explore their vulnerability. The facilities are also overcrowded also.

Official records show that the 40 Correctional centres in Nigeria have a current population of 70,237, with a large number awaiting trial. This is way above the 57,278 capacity.

The situation has been described as a wake-up call for reforms and entrenchment of global best practices.