No jailbreak… Charles Okah ‘hale and hearty’ in custody, says prisons service

The Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS) has denied that Charles Okah, suspected mastermind of the 2010 Independence Day bombings, has escaped from the Kuje Prisons, Abuja.

It also denied that there was a jailbreak at Kuje, as has been widely reported.

“It is untrue. There was no jailbreak at Kuje prison. I can tell you that authoritatively. There was no jail-break,” ‎Francis Enobore, spokesman of the service, told TheCable.

On the reported escape of Okah, he said: “That again is not true. I spoke with the officer in charge of the prison when the news was trending and he told me that Charles Okah is still there hale and hearty. I’m telling you authoritatively that Okah did not escape.”

Enobere also clarified reports suggesting that the NPS confirmed that there was a jailbreak but denied that Okah was involved.

This he blamed on “frequent assumptions” that any form of disturbance at a prison is a”jailbreak”.

“In the past when Boko Haram was strong, if there was an attack on a prison, it would be termed a jailbreak.

“If two prisoners were involved in a fight, it would be termed a jailbreak. But a jailbreak actually has to do with an internal disturbance, so I can tell you that there was no jailbreak at Kuje Prisons.

He said he had spoken with all key officers at Kuje and all of them confirmed that Okah was still in custody.

He said he was on his way to the prison to see things for himself, and brief the media properly.

Okah, the man whose escape is rumoured, attempted to commit suicide in October 2015.

He had sought permission to speak from Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the federal high court, Abuja, on what he termed “endless trial”.

“I have been incarcerated for about five years now and I have a family to cater for,” said the accused, whose counsel was absent from court.

“My children would grow up without feeling the warmth of their father and I am tired of this endless trial. I really do not know what I have done to be treated this way. Is it not better to die than to wait and be messed up this way?”

Immediately after he ended his speech, Okah grabbed a chair in the court and quickly advanced towards a window on third floor of the five-storeyed building in an attempt to jump down, but he was immediately pulled back by security operatives, lawyers and other litigants.