Jailbreak Horror!

December 12, (THEWILL) – UKANDI ODEYreviews the recent attack on the Jos Correctional Service Centre and the matters arising from the resulting jail break

With the time at 5.20pm, many did not expect that assailants would execute a dare-devil plot to break into the Jos Medium Custodial Centre at that hour. Considering the location of the facility, many thought 5pm was a very unlikely hour to orchestrate such a bloody and high profile crime. But, like the immediate past era of bombing of public places, the attackers took all by surprise and literally beat security personnel on duty at the facility to a near photo-finish operation.

A broadcaster in Jos, in the aftermath of the attack, described the location of the Jos Medium Custodial Centre, as a ‘fortress’.

Located intricately in the heart of the Jos metropolis, the Jos Custodial Centre, besides its stone wall, high rising fortification, is in the midst of the outlay of state security. To the west of the centre lies the Area Command of the Nigeria Police, complete with a well entrenched barracks. Northwards, it is also bound by the Department of State Security (DSS) and the A Division of the Nigeria Police. Again, right opposite and overlooking the State Correctional Service Headquarters is the State headquarters of the Plateau State Police Command, with the operational headquarters of the Joint Task Force on Jos Crisis, alias Operation Safe Haven, steadied some poles further the hills.

In all, given its location and array of professional security and counter-terrorism neighbours, if the thought of a terrorist attack on the prison is inevitable and quite possible, the possibility of a successful operation, as was the experience last week, which has also left the target counting its losses, was thought to be impossible or unlikely.

The entire episode revealed good planning and careful execution on the part of the attackers, especially that security intelligence neither encountered and picked up the plan nor detected their presence and mobilisation to actualise their plot. According to eyewitness accounts, the attackers arrived at their target from the West of Mines area, a bubbly red light district of curiously mixed demographics interfacing the Police Barracks from its North-West end.

Eyewitness accounts claim that the attackers, who were dressed rather casually in long flowing Kaftans and Jallabia, were nine in number, quick and businesslike once they succeeded in getting to their target. First, they took on and summarily eliminated the prisons officer who was on duty at the post close to the main gate of the prison yard. They shot and wounded the next official they met. The gunmen started shooting sporadically as four of them positioned themselves strategically outside the facility to provide cover, while the rest went inside the prison to perform the operation that gave cause to their assault.

It does appear that elements of surprise and confusion gave the attack an advantage and opportunity, which they maximised and accomplished much before a counter force came from an ill-prepared state security team.

Although an early report released by the Public Relations Unit of the custodial centre created the impression of an immediate response from the security personnel, during an on-the-spot assessment visit to the facility, the Deputy Comptroller of Corrections in charge of operations, Ahmad Tukur, admitted that the attackers overwhelmed the guards at the custodial centre, who were on duty and thus gained access into the building, its offices and armoury, carting away ordinances and setting the records office ablaze.

Tukur also admitted that a jail break occurred in the process. Some of the inmates escaped and disappeared from prison custody. According to him, 262 inmates escaped from the centre, although 17 had been rearrested as of last Tuesday.

The deputy comptroller noted that the echelons of the Service had no reason or indication to think or believe that internal sabotage or collaboration could have aided the attackers and their success, at least to the extent that they facilitated the escape of some of the inmates.

However, he maintained that investigations were already on to determine a lot of factors or influences belying the attack.

For an attack that started as early as 5.20pm and lasted several hours that stretched into the thick of dusk, eyewitness accounts conflict with or by-pass official claims in some instances. The report by the public relations unit of the custodial centre that the attackers were trapped within the walls of the prison when the counter-force from the DSS was closing in on them turned out to be far from the truth. Rather, according to eyewitnesses, the attackers had accomplished their task, including recovering their prized ‘members’, before the counter force arrived on the scene.

Similarly, independent sources do not agree that one of the assailants was gunned down in the cross-fire. They are of the view that all the six victims whose corpses were found the next day were killed by pro-establishment bullets.

It is argued by many that if, indeed, the attackers were trapped within the confines of the prison yard, most of them would have been killed, with ammunitions recovered from them displayed as testimony to the gallantry of the state forces. Nevertheless, the same Independent sources single out officials of the DSS for commendation, noting that they provided the real counter-offensive that humbled the attackers to the option of retreat.

Again, the sources dispute officialdom and its contention, which put the number of inmates who escaped at 262. While the number of inmates targeted for rescue is said to be 15, the attackers are believed to have shown magnanimity to other ‘oppressed’ by throwing the gates open for more people to escape, thereby depopulating the Jos Prison to less than a thousand inmates.

While confirming the number of escapees and re-arrested inmates fortnight ago, Deputy Comptroller Tukur was silent on the inmates capacity of the Jos Custodial Centre, and its depleted position after the jailbreak crime.

Thus, not many are impressed by the reports of re-arrest of a paltry 17 escapees two days after the incident, while none of the criminals, who carried out the horrendous act, has been apprehended. How hundreds of escapees found their way through the neighborhood where there are no bushes or caves or tunnels put paid to the insensitivity of not suspecting insider collaboration and sabotage the following questions are asked: Why did the incident have to occur on a Sunday? How did the attackers got to know about the armoury and its contents? Why did they set the records office ablaze?

With six bodies, apart from the warder who was shot dead at his duty post, the darkness of the night provided a cover for fleeing inmates while the operation lasted. The attackers may have been more concerned with giving ‘ justice’ and freeing the ‘oppressed’ than to kill and wreak havoc. To that extent, it was an insurrection against the state.

Sources in the adjoining Police Barracks have insisted that there was insider sabotage that facilitated the attack, and that, indeed, it is not yet over as the attackers may come again. Technically competent sources in the Barracks question why the attackers chose to come by 5 pm when it is duty handover time, and the inmates are normally outside. the sources also point out that burning of records which took place during the attack was likely carried out by the inmates, noting that the Jos Prison has a lot of inmates awaiting trial, and some have spent as much as twenty to thirty years inside the prison. because of fear of another attack, security around the Prison area has been beefed up, with reports there was tension around the area December 4, that another attack was imminent.

Whatever be the missing gaps and logic disconnect, the incident has further underscored emerging and emergent trends in urban violence and organised terrorism. As usual, the state government and other well meaning individuals have condemned the incident. That, however, does not eliminate the real and present danger: Who is safe in today’s Nigeria? Can the state actually guarantee the security and safety of its citizens? Or is Nigeria in a state of war? With no arrests yet at press time, these questions can only continue to resonate in national discourse.