The Minna jailbreak

ON June 3, the federal prison located in the Tunga area of Minna metropolis in Niger State, otherwise known as the Medium Security Prison, went the way of many prisons in the country. It was broken into by a band of dare-devil criminals. At the end of the invasion, according to the Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS), a prison officer and a motorcyclist died, about 200 inmates escaped and a number of other inmates got missing. It was however reported in the media that some fleeing prisoners were eventually arrested and returned to the prison.

Jailbreaks have been on the upswing in recent times. The result is that hardened criminals who, by the conception of the Nigerian justice system, are not fit to intermingle with the rest of society until they are fully reformed, get out of jail prematurely. Prisoners who have not gone through the process of reformation and sobriety are unleashed on the society. There is thus the danger of multiplication of crimes as the inmates foment more troubles, indeed greater crimes, within the period of the prisoners’ illegal freedom.

The security establishment should be bothered about the increase in jailbreaks. And a number of issues ought to be factored into any move to get a remedy for the menace. The first is to examine the factors that make breaking into prisons fashionable and ultimately successful. One of such factors is that the prisons are no longer reformatory as they were conceived to be. It has been said time and again that a term in a Nigerian prison is almost akin to a death sentence. The purpose of the framers of the idea of a prison was to get the offender reformed and become a better citizen after he or she must have served out his or her term. However, in Nigeria, prisoners are assumed to be second class citizens. It is this faulty societal estimation, coupled with negative official attitudes, that necessitates the Nigerian prisoner being treated with utmost condescension or outright neglect. Due to the negative perception, it is not surprising that prisoners are often given less than human treatment.

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The subhuman treatment begins from the kind of food they are given, the level of healthcare, the inhabitable atmosphere of jails and the little or no opportunity given to them for recreation. It is thus obvious that there is a culpability between officialdom and the society in the plight of prisoners. While serving out his or her term, the prisoner is frustrated and dehumanised, so much so that an escape from this nest of inhumanity is appealing to him or her, no matter the level of danger that is associated with the bid. Securing outside participation to escape from the Nigerian prison is fascinating to the prisoner.

Another problem with the Nigerian prison is the virtual systems collapse that afflicts the entire country. In the case of the Minna jailbreak, this same problem recurred. For example, eight prison warders were supposed to be on duty on the day of the escape but only four of them showed up, while only two were armed. The question is, was there an insider collaboration, as is often the case during jailbreaks in the country? The Ministry of Interior needs to set up a high-powered investigation team to unravel the circumstances behind the jailbreak. The porous atmosphere of Nigerian prisons is yet another cause for worry. The investigators should look at the environment of the Minna prison to ascertain whether it was a factor in the jailbreak. For instance, the Agodi Prisons in Ibadan, Oyo State, is so porous as to invite an invasion by criminals. The prison is encumbered on all fronts by commercial traders who surround it. This needs to be addressed urgently.

We are pleased with the statement by the prison authorities that efforts are being put in place to arrest the 149 escapees still on the run and to get to the root of the jailbreak. According to the NPS spokesman, Francis Enobore, the service is working out strategies to end jailbreaks permanently. We hope that this is not a hollow promise. Securing Nigeria entails preventing hardened criminals from coming out prematurely to hurt the rest of the society.