42 suspected criminals escape from SARS cell

About 42 suspected armed robbers and cultists detained by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad cell (SARS), in Bayelsa State, Yenagoa have escaped.

Reacting to the incident, the police hierarchy in the state, insisted that only 10 suspects escaped.

The suspects were alleged to have broken through the back section of the cell and scaled into the Yenagoa Local Government premises. A police source said that one of the escapees had been re-arrested while search for others continued.

The Bayelsa State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Asinin Butswat, said: “This is to  inform Bayelsa State citizens that at about 2am, November 7, 2017, the incident duty officer of SARS, while on routine cell check discovered that 10 suspects escaped through the ceiling of SARS detention facility.”

While the  Police said only 10 escaped, an insider said they were about 42.

A policeman, attached to SARS, drafted to cordon off the facility, said that police were still taking stock of the number of inmates that escaped.

He said: “The cell holds more than 50 suspects, but it is empty. It is difficult to give an accurate number of those that escaped until we check records. But we heard that 42 criminals were detained before the escape.”

The close observation of some security personnel at the Yenagoa LGA office  was said to have alerted the officers of SARS at the front before they discovered the prison break.

Some of the rearrested suspects are New Year Esau, 21 and Esua Theophillus, 22.
The source further said: "The profile of the fleeing suspects had been circulated to our intelligence sources and efforts have been intensified to catch them.”