Prison riot: Five alleged killed as minister arrives Lagos

An inmate at the Medium Security Prisons, Kirirkiri, Lagos State on Saturday night revealed that the authourity of the Nigerian Prisons was being economical with the truth of what led to the prison riot of Friday and the number of the people killed.

This was even as information emerged on Sunday via the spokesperson for the Nigerian Prisons Service, Mr. Ope Fatinikun, that the Interior minister, Mr. Patrick Abba Moro arrived Lagos and was addressing journalists at the prison facility where the riot took place.

Although Ope said he alerted journalists, but soon became apparent that it might be a case of selected journalists, buttressing arguments by inmates that the prisons authourity were not being forthright with members of the public about what happened and number of people killed.

On Saturday night, at about 9:45pm, an inmate disclosed: “Five inmates were killed. It was not a jail break, but a riot. The new Deputy Comptroller of Prisons (DCP), ordered that some of the things we used should be seized. These items included fan, generator, pots and others. But what annoyed every inmate was that he also ban raw food from us. This means our family members or anybody can no longer bring raw food for us. The type of food they cook in this place is bad. This is why most inmates cook.

“We heard they said only one inmate died, it’s a lie! The person who said that is a liar! Let me tell you the truth, none of us planned to escape. And those killed were deliberately shot and not because they attempted to escape.

On Friday, guns boomed at the Kirikiri area, forcing those residing to scamper for safety. It was later discovered that inmates were rioting. Initial report however claimed that some inmates attempted a jailbreak.

It was after the smoke cleared that it was gathered that the new DCP imposed laws forbidden some things the inmates had taken for granted. These things included use of cell phones, fans, cooking utensils, pot, generating set, collection of raw food from visitors or family members, amongst others.

The immediate trigger of Friday however was when a warder tried to seize a fan belong to pastor called the General Overseer. The inmates started chanting ‘we no gree ooo, we no gree.’ The situation snowballed, with the inmates pelting stones at warders and breaking glasses.

The prison authourity was forced to bring in soldiers, who allegedly opened fire on inmates siddling towards the walls of the prison with intent to escape.

On Saturday Ope said a probe  panel had been constituted to look into the cause of the riot. He said that seven inmates sustained injuries in the riot, adding that three were treated and discharged, while four were hospitalised. He revealed that an inmate died that Saturday morning, while three were still in hospital.

Moro said: “From the information made available, the immediate cause of the riot is that an inmate came unauthorised and installed some gadget without the knowledge of the officials.

“What it meant therefore was that a convict, who brought in some gadget, instigated the inmates to complain and that led to the fracas. But, the police and other security agencies have intervened and calmed down the situation.

“More fundamentally, there is need for us to think about the level of freedom the inmates enjoy, especially compared to the level of international practices. The two gatherings representing the inmates are the chapel and the mosque. Christianity is Christianity, and in the world over, one worship ground is usually provided for the inmates. The prison services must review the institutions of worship in our prisons.  

“What also comes to mind is the state of facilities in some of our prisons. It requires some level of rehabilitation. At the moment, we have the issue of congestion, and it is very unacceptable that we have a prison which is accommodating 2,536 inmates. Out of this number, only 98 are convicts. We have 2,434 inmates awaiting trial.

“When we finish our assessment, we will be able to address the problem of congestion in our prisons. The president has approved an inter-ministerial committee for this. This is one committee that will come up with some solutions on this. We are working on that. We must have facilities that conform to the international practices.”