Gunmen Attack Ado-Ekiti Prison, Killed Warder, Free 122 Inmates, Explosion Rocks Maiduguri Market Again
Unknown gunmen in the wee hours of Monday invaded Ado-Ekiti prisons along Afao road and freed some 122 the inmates in the prison after killing one official.
This is not the first time such a security breach will be experienced in Ado-Ekiti prison. In 2012, gunmen men had invaded the same prison and freed undisclosed number of inmates.
This was even a bomb exploded at the Maiduguri Monday Market (MMM), at about 11.25am on Monday, creating a crater, near the chicken and poultry section of the market.
It would be recalled that some 50 residents, traders and buyers were allegedly killed, in a similar attack at the same market by insurgents, in a manner that caught security operatives attached to the area napping.
As at the time of filing this report, casualties as a result of the blast, are yet to be collated, as a security source alleged that people were prevented by members of the Civil Defense Corps from getting near the scene.
Meanwhile, this is after several inmates at the Ado Ekiti prison have escaped following an attack on the facility by gunmen.
The controller of prison, Kehinde Fadipe, in a telephone interview from Ado-Ekiti who confirmed the attack said the invaders, had allegedly used dynamite to break the main entrance to the prison.
He added that some of the escaped inmates have been rearrested. But an inside source revealed to our Correspondent that, some five inmates and prison official died in the attack.
It was also gathered that the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, has promised to be in Ado Ekiti to assess the level of the attack.
Gunmen armed with grenades and heavy firearms had recently allegedly freed about 124 inmates from one of the Nigeria’s Federal Prison in Koton-Karfe, Kogi State, Nigeria’s north central region.
The source said that the Kogi jailbreak took place at about 10.00pm. “We heard gunshots and explosions at about 10:00pm on Sunday, and we were all scared to death.”
He added that security operatives made frantic attempts to repel the attack by some gunmen who attacked the prison but to no avail.
Reacting to the incident, the Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO) Emmanuel Ojukwu, had said, “we were able to re-arrest nine of them, though one is dead”. He told our Correspondent in a telephone chat from Abuja on Monday.
That was the second time that gunmen would attack the Kogi prison in the last two years.
In February 2012, suspected members of the Boko Haram sect bombed their way into the prison before opening fire on the wardens and emptying the jail of its 200 inmates. That attack in 2012 left one warden dead.
Similarly, scores of inmates were killed, while others escaped, on October 10, 2014, Friday, in an attempted prison break at Kirikiri Medium Prison situated in Apapa area of Lagos, it would be recalled.