Benin Jail Break: We’re Yet To Know What Happened — Prison Boss

Assistant Controller General (Operations) of Nigeria Prisons, Nuhu Zuru, on Wednesday paid a working visit to the federal minimum prisons, Oko, Benin City, to ascertain what actually happened and the level of damage done to the 630-capacity prisons facility during the jail break on Sunday, 19 August.

Zuru, who did not want to be drawn into what now appears to be conflicting information about the attack on the prison, said, “until I am done with the tour of facilities, I may not be able to speak to you,” adding  “the Minister was here, the CG was here and I am here to carry out on the spot assessment of the situation and to further investigate the incident in order to unravel what actually happened.

“We are still investigating and as a matter of fact I had to cut short my meetings because you are here and the respect I have for the press. One has to be empirically sure before one makes a categorical statement on any issue.

“I am here in order to ascertain issues and what happened and it is when I am through that I will now sit down and analyse and that will now put me in a better position to address the issue.” There have been conflicting reports on the number of inmates who escaped during the jail break. Edo State Prisons Controller, Mr. Jimoh Ewulo and the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Olayinka Balogun, gave different information about the incident during their media briefings.

While Balogun, on Monday, claimed that no prisoner escaped during the jail break, insisting that the only two inmates who attempted to abscond were rearrested, the Comptroller told reporters that eight inmates escaped, while four others were re-arrested.3

—Jethro Ibileke/Benin