A prison official was on Monday killed as gunmen attacked the Federal Prison, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.
No fewer than 20 sniffer dogs were also slaughtered at the prison yard located on Afao-Ekiti road during the incident.
The gunmen, numbering over 60, according to a source, came to the prison premises in Hilux trucks, wielding dangerous weapons such as cudgels, cutlasses, AK 47 rifles, dynamites and charms .
The source said that the attackers were chanting ‘Allahu Akbar, Akbar’ as they set free some inmates during the attack.
Though, journalists were denied access into the prison yard when they came to the scene of the incident, blood stains were seen on the road leading to the prison, suggesting that some people might have been seriously wounded in the attack.
One of the inmates, who was set free during the attack, returned to the prison and told newsmen that he ran out when he heard sporadic shooting at night, but had to come back.
Addressing journalists at the gate of the prison, the Comptroller of Prison in the state, Mr. Fadipe Abolarin Kehinde, who confirmed the attack, said no casualty was recorded and that Adeniyi Adedipe, a.k.a ‘Apase’ was still in their custordy.
A statement aired on the state-owned radio station had alleged that the action was carried out by All Progressives Congress thugs.
According to the statement, the attack was aimed to set free a murder suspect, Mr Adeniyi Adedipe, who is being remanded in the prison custody over the murder of a former chairman of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Chief Omolafe Aderiye.
According to the Controller of Prisons, “We are moving around to assess the situation. “It was not a jail break but an attack on the prison.
“The main entrance of the prison was broken. What happened is that we were attacked from outside not from within, they came massively with different weapons, they attacked our men on duty, and we have been here since 10.30 yesterday (Sunday).”
On whether inmates were set free during the attack, Abolarin who did not give a specific figure of those who escaped said officers were already out to re-arrest those that escaped during the attack.
“We have some that have been recaptured and kept in police cells.”
Reacting, APC denied any link with the attack describing it as another ploy by the PDP to tarnish the image of the APC in Ekiti State.
The publicity secretary of the party, Chief Taiwo Olatubosun, who spoke on the telephone said “what shall we gain for doing that, we cannot do such things, it is not in our character to do such things.”
Olatubosun added “Very soon the PDP and the governor will have to accuse God for running a clueless government and for their shortcoming.”
Speaking in an interview on the telephone, Olatubosun said the government was talking from the “figment of its imagination” asking “is it the APC that is in charge of the prison or the security of the state? It is the figment of their imagination that the APC is connected with the breaking of the prison. We don’t know anything about it.”
The APC called on the police in the state to build a strong security around the prison saying the PDP might be planning to attack the facility with a view to killing the suspect and other inmates.
