…Six inmates rounded up, police deploy anti-bomb squad

 From: Femi Folaranmi Yenagoa

 A combined team of security agencies, on Sunday night, foiled a jail break operation at Okaka Medium Prisons, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

 The Okaka prison, with a capacity of 300 inmates, presently has 600 inmates and twice in the last three years suspects awaiting trial have escaped from prison vans conveying them to court, prompting extra security beef up at the prisons including the deployment of soldiers and an Armoured Personnel Carrier to the Okaka prisons to prevent any jail break.

 Investigations revealed that the attempted jail break was carried out to free supposed six hardened criminals awaiting trial for armed robbery and kidnapping at the Okaka prisons.

Related News

Residents of Okaka were thrown into pandemonium when at about 9pm there was a loud bang followed by sporadic gun shots around the prison area.

 Daily Sun gathered that two IEDs were smuggled into the prison for the operation and one of the IED was to blast open their cell and the other to be used for the fence for their final escape.

The six suspects had succeeded in blasting open the wall of the fence and were about to move outside when they were accosted by armed prison guards that had moved swiftly to the scene.

One of the suspects, an ex- militant standing trial for kidnapping operated the IED that blasted the wall of the cell and he was injured with several burns on his body.

 In an interview the Controller of Prisons, Yenagoa, Mr Chiabua Chuks Victor Uche who confirmed the attempted jail break commended the Commissioner of Police, Bayelsa State command, Mr Asuquo Amba , Director of the DSS in the state, Mr. Segun Agbaje, and the Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Mr Desmond Agu, for their prompt response to prevent the jail break.