One of the convicts, who escaped from Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja on Tuesday, July 5, Abdulrazak Isah, has spoken on how he fell back into the hands of the law after stealing some items from an abandoned hotel in which he was hibernating.
Isah is one of the suspects paraded in Abuja last Wednesday by the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, for various offences ranging from kidnapping, armed robbery to murder.
The FPRO, in the press briefing, disclosed that Isah, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in 2013, had spent 10 years in prison before his escape from the detention facility.
CSP Adejobi said that he was arrested at Tafa Local Government Area of Kaduna State for stealing an iPad and a computer monitor from a hotel in Sabon Wuse, Niger State.
He added that the suspect sold the monitor for N5,000 and the iPad for N10,000, before he was arrested.
Saturday Tribune had an interview with him during which he spoke on how he was arrested after his escape from the prison.
Giving information about his background, he said: “I am 27 years old. My parents are from Ondo State but I was born and brought up in Bauchi State. I’m an engineer of digital television. I repair digital TV installations and other electronics. I lost my parents in 2019.”
What landed me in prison
“I was involved in the killing of an Indian. I was working with the Indian as a cook. Another Indian working in the same company, a ceramic industry wanted to take over the position of my direct boss, so there was rivalry between them. The Indian we killed was the factory chairman. The one who assigned the killing to us was the Vice Chairman. The company was owned by Indians and was producing tiles and water closets.
“The job was given to me and my colleague. On a Friday, at about 7:30pm, my boss was sitting in front of his office when my co-worker crept in from behind and stabbed him in the stomach which made him to fall down. Before then, we had planned that I should leave, pretending to want to do something. That night, I told my boss that I was going to pick his key, but signalled to my colleague.
“After he fell, I took his phone. The police came to evacuate his corpse. Later, all the company workers were summoned but my partner-in-crime did not come, so they went to arrest him. During investigation, he confessed and that led to my arrest. The Indian who gave us the assignment was also arrested but later released.
Before our arrests, the Indian man gave my partner an amount which was not disclosed to me, but he (co-worker) promised to give me N30,000 which I never got till we were arrested.
“I was arraigned in court for armed robbery and murder and was remanded in prison.”
How I escaped from Kuje prison
“It was when terrorists (who later claimed to be Islamic State in West Africa Province, known as ISWAP) came in. I escaped and walked in the bush throughout the night until I arrived at the hotel at about 3pm. Throughout my trekking in the bush, I would stop and rest whenever I was tired.”
The FPRO said that the prison escapee would be handed over to Kuje Correctional Centre after the completion of investigation on his theft.
How I was re-arrested
“I stole computer, a monitor and iPad from the defunct and desolate hotel I was staying in after escaping from Kuje prison. It was my hiding place. The gateman was no longer there. Before the theft, I used to stay inside the hotel at daytime but would go out in the night, using it as a cover to look for what to eat. I was not doing anything there and did not have anything to survive on. That was why I stole the items. I saw them inside one of the rooms. The iPad was not working.
“On the night I was arrested, I had left the abandoned hotel to have air of freedom and to sell the iPad and the computer monitor. I sold the iPad for N10,000 because it was not functioning. I got N5,000 for the computer monitor.
“I was returning to the hotel to sleep when I was arrested because I was returning late at almost 11:30pm. I told a lie that I was a student and they asked for my identity card which I didn’t have. I was handed over to Intelligence Response Team (IRT).
“It was during interrogation that I confessed to the IRT operatives that I escaped from Kuje prison.”
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