Jail Break Foiled In Calabar

               
An early morning jailbreak attempt by inmates of Afokang Prisons, Calabar, was yesterday foiled by the joint task force of security agents made up of Nigeria Police, personnel of the Nigerian Army and prison officers.
  According to inside sources, the inmates had carried out the revolution in the prisons located on the outskirts of Calabar South in large numbers, seizing arms from the prison armoury.
   The incident created pandemonium and a tensed atmosphere at the Afokang prison environment as a large crowd of residents thronged to the prison area when rumors spread in the early hours of the day that the jail had been broken.
   Speaking with The Guardian in a telephone interview, the State’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Hogan Bassey, debunked rumours making the rounds within the Calabar metropolis yesterday that lives were lost.
 The Prison Comptroller in charge of Cross Rivers, Mr. Clement Udosen, said “by 11 o’clock in the morning, I was in my office in the headquarters when the DC in charge of this prison called me that there was serious problem in the yard. So I went there and the whole place was filled with people carrying rifles, people who had come here to help us- the soldiers, police, Civil Defence, State Secret Service and others”.
  He revealed that the attack was organised by inmates when they went inside the yard to bathe.
  Udosen explained that the “two cells of about 70 in each cell organised themselves and overpowered the prison staff, rushed to where we have the armoury, seized the rifles there and went back firing at the staff.”
   “In that confusion they broke other cells and the whole yard was filled with inmates. They carried what they could get to break the fence but failed.”
  “Luckily for now they have all been rounded up and nobody has escaped. A lot of people have been injured and one staff had been rushed to the hospital,” he added.
   The prisons spokesman further said: “Right now the doctors with his team are treating those injured. On the number of casualties, it is the doctor that would ascertain that because he is still treating them.  Most of those injured were the inmates. Three of our staff members were wounded and one rushed to the hospital. There was no external invasion. It was an attempted jailbreak and luckily nobody escaped.”
  “The other security agencies helped us especially the 13th Brigade of the Nigerian Army because they stationed 10 solders here, morning and night and that really helped us, as they encircled the perimeter fence.”