{"id":5864,"date":"2013-07-02T15:25:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-02T15:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigeria-news\/the-need-to-tighten-security-in-prisons\/"},"modified":"2013-07-02T15:25:00","modified_gmt":"2013-07-02T15:25:00","slug":"the-need-to-tighten-security-in-prisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/the-need-to-tighten-security-in-prisons\/","title":{"rendered":"The Need To Tighten Security In Prisons"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On Sunday, a number of armed men, some reports put the number at 30, attacked the Olokuta Medium Security Prison in Akure, Ondo State and succeeded in releasing 175 inmates detained there for several criminal offences. The gunmen with improvised explosive devices, came to the prison around midnight and after killing two prison warders, blew off a section of the prison wall to enable the inmates escape.<\/p>\n

Among those who escaped were convicted criminals on deathrow, those awaiting trial and those remanded on the orders of the court because they could not meet the conditions attached to their bail. Initially, local people living around the facility attributed the attack to members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect but officials have since dismissed this, saying that the gunmen were hoodlums who came to free their accomplices detained in the prison.<\/p>\n

There were also insinuations that the attackers belonged to a group opposed to the recent execution of inmates on death row in the prisons. They were said to be afraid that Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State was about to sign the death warrant of their colleagues condemned to death in the Olokuta prison.<\/p>\n

The report revealed that the attack was a pre-emptive move made by the hoodlums to prevent their colleagues from being executed as was the case at the Edo Prison where four inmates on deathrow were executed after Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State had signed their death warrants. The signing of the death warrants followed President Goodluck Jonathan\u2019s directive that state governors were under obligation to sign the death warrants of condemned criminals for execution to be carried out in order to implement the law.<\/p>\n

While we join other Nigerians to condemn the attack on the prison facility, we are concerned that attacks on the nations\u2019 prisons are becoming rampant. We are worried because after each attack, nothing concrete is done to prevent a repeat. It is because those charged with providing adequate security at our prisons failed to do their jobs that a bunch of gunmen had the temerity to attack the Olokuta Prison.<\/p>\n

We are shocked at the ease with which the gunmen succeeded in attacking the prison and freeing the inmates.Though the authorities claimed there was a gunfight between the gunmen and the warders on duty, we are surprised that the latter suffered two casualties while the gunmen suffered none. We are amazed that the facility which was located near a military barracks was attacked without soldiers coming to the aid of the warders.<\/p>\n

If those in charge of the nation\u2019s prisons had been up and doing, they should have known that a prison ought to be a well guarded fortress to make it impossible to attack without the attackers suffering casualties.<\/p>\n

Prisons in advanced countries of the world are impregnable fortresses with a complement of security gadgets and well trained warders. It is our suggestion that a total overhaul of our prisons is needed to prevent frequent jailbreaks like we have witnessed of recent. Security should be beefed up in all the prisons while warders should be provided with sophisticated weapons and surveillance gadgets mounted on the facilities to ward off invaders.<\/p>\n

A situation where untrained gunmen will attack our prisons to free hardened crimnals on death row does not speak well of us as a serious country.<\/p>\n

The Federal Government should take a look at the security situation in the prisons and do something urgently to prevent a reoccurence of what happened in Olokuta Prison. The Akure incident should serve as an eye opener for the authorities to address the shortcomings in the prison system.<\/p>\n

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Posted in Nigeria News. <\/a>A DisNaija.Com<\/a> network.<\/p>\n

Source: PM News<\/p>\n

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