TheCable

At least two prisoners were killed on Friday during a failed attempt to escape from the Kirikiri Medium Prisons, Apapa in Lagos.

A source, who spoke with TheCable but did not want to be named, said “many people were also injured” in the jailbreak, which was staged at about 2pm.

However, a prison officer, who also requested not to be named, confirmed the deaths but denied that what happened was a jailbreak.

He said the inmates were rioting against the policies of the new commandant deployed to the prison some three months ago.

“It was not a jail break,” he said.

“The inmates have been complaining about our new commandant for sometime now.

“They just suddenly staged a riot this afternoon and the situation almost went out of hand.”

He said normalcy had since been restored and the riot did not extend beyond the confines of the prison.

Abubakar Jibrin, a resident of the area, also confirmed that calm had been restored.

“I have been staying in this Kirirkiri town for close to 25 years and I have never experienced anything close to this,” he said.

“I was on my way to the mosque when I started hearing the gunshots. Initially, we were confused until we knew that the shots were coming from the direction of the prison. But everywhere is peaceful now.

“I was told that the inmates were protesting within the prison and the warders had to shoot into the air to scare them. The situation has been brought under control. Things are normal now.”

But yet another resident said what happened “was certainly a jailbreak”.

“From those gunshots I heard, nobody needs to be told that a jailbreak was ongoing,” he said.

“How, by the way, can two prisoners be killed in the process of a riot? Is it possible for prisoners to be armed to the point that two of them had to be shot. If there wasn’t an attempted escape, nobody would have been killed.”