Image used for illustrationUnconfirmed Number Of Prisoners Freed As Unidentified Gun Men Attack Prison In Owerri, Police Headquarters.
According to reports by the PeoplesGazette, the attack was as a result of a incessant confrontation between Nigerian security forces and members of Indigenous People Of Biafra (IPOB) movement in the South-East.
The prison facility and police investigations department in Owerri according to reports on various social media accounts reveals the building were set ablaze by yet to be identified attacker, an which is said to have started in the middle of the night in early hours of Monday.
The attackers hit the prison and police department shortly after midnight, freeing a yet-unconfirmed number of inmates and suspects. Heavy gunfire also rang through the area, with an account saying over hundreds of inmates might have escaped.
Watch video of attack :
The number of prisoners that escaped is yet unknown but Amnesty International said over the weekend that Owerri Correctional Centre had 2,156 inmates as against its installed capacity of 548 people.
Imo police spokesman Godson Orlando told Peoples Gazette he was unaware of the violence, hours after reports had spread across social media with residents across different sections of Owerri reporting hearing heavy gunshots and explosions.
“I am just hearing it from you now,” Mr Orlando, a police superintendent, revealed when called up on the phone by the news agency at 4:48 a.m. “I will have to wait until later today to find out what happened.”
A spokesman for the correctional headquarters in Abuja did not immediately return a request seeking comments.
Those behind the violence and their motive could not be ascertained before this report was filed.
More details later......
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