Last Tuesday’s jailbreak at the Keffi Medium Security Correctional Centre, coming on the heels of the Koton Karfe breakout in March, this year, should be of serious cause for worry. Before the two recent incidents, there appeared to be a lull. In the past two or so decades, jailbreaks occurred regularly with tens of thousands of inmates escaping into freedom. While a few escapees have been captured, a large number of them still remain at large till date.
A few instances will suffice here: Between 2015 and 2022, 13 breakouts were successfully executed resulting in the flight of over 8,000 inmates. The figure climbed to 9,000 within three years with many of them still enjoying their freedom. Some of these jailbreaks were masterminded by external forces. On April 5, 2021, gunmen suspected to be members of the Eastern Security Network (ESN) raided the Owerri Custodial Centre and let go of about 1,800 inmates.
Earlier during the #EndSARS protests, the Benin and Oko prisons came under mob attacks, facilitating the escape of an unprecedented flight of close to 2,000 inmates to freedom. And as recently as April 25, this year, nature enabled 118 inmates to escape as a torrential downpour brought down part of the old fence and structures of the Suleja Medium Custodial Centre.
The latest resurgence must be nipped in the bud before the nation returns to the era where jailbreaks occurred ever and anon, sparing no correctional centres across the states.
The Keffi incident was said to have occurred in the early hours of the fateful day in a violent jailbreak that saw 16 inmates regaining their liberty.
The breakout on March 24, 2025 at the 91-year-old Koton Karfe Medium Security Custodial Centre, Kogi state, has earned it the notoriety as one of the most insecure jailhouses in the country owing to the frequency of the occurrences in recent years. For instance, between 2012 and 2016, no fewer than six breakouts were recorded. In one of such incidents masterminded by the inmates and external forces, 13 of the escapees regained freedom, leaving behind a gruesomely murdered officer of the centre and none of them has been rearrested till this moment.
There are about 253 custodial centres of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) that habour a total of 79,669 inmates. Among them, 26,898 are serving various terms of imprisonment, representing 34 per cent, while the fate of 52,771 is yet to be decided.
Most of the nation’s correctional centres existed before Nigeria secured its independence in 1960. While the number of inmates has increased geometrically, the facilities have remained virtually unexpanded and in a deplorable state, although some have been restructured lately.
Several factors are responsible for these recurring prison breaks. Notable among them are infrastructure deficit, overcrowded cells, everlasting trial of suspects, pitiable conditions of service and poor remuneration of prison staff, among others.
Perhaps, the most worrisome factor is the slow motion embedded in the nation’s criminal justice system resulting in a huge number of awaiting trial inmates. When justice is delayed unnecessarily, the exasperated inmates would find a way to escape it by all means possible. It is public knowledge that many awaiting trial inmates have been incarcerated for longer than the period they would have spent in custody if their cases had been promptly dispensed with.
There is now a compelling need for the relevant authorities to address as a matter of urgency the constraints hampering the quick dispensation of justice such as frequent adjournment of cases, partly due to endless investigations by prosecuting police personnel who are mostly ill-trained or badly equipped for their assignments, inadequate courts, shortage of personnel at the bench, recording of court proceedings in long hand in a 21st century Nigeria. These are also some of the factors fueling jail attacks and breakouts. Also, there is the need to ventilate the judicial system by creating special courts to try some peculiar cases. The regular courts are overwhelmed.
Chief judges in various states are also advised to pay routine visits to jail houses with a view to looking into cases that have overstayed in the courts. It is equally necessary to expand the judicial space by setting up mobile courts to try minor offences. Suspended sentences and granting of parole are also some options the courts can consider. These are some of the ways to decongest our custodial centres. While it is imperative to fortify the prison facilities across the country in addition to building the capacity of warders and equipping them with tools to secure the premises, the much-talked-about prison reform should also be given urgent attention.
Furthermore, the federal and state governments have a responsibility to address such factors like poverty and joblessness that fuel criminality, which consequently haul people into jail houses. There was a time the federal government introduced Non-Custodial Measures in Nigeria as a way of ventilating the prisons across the country but the policy was desultorily pursued and later abandoned.
In view of these perennial insurrections in the nation’s custodial centres, the government should consider warehousing criminals facing serious charges in special, heavily guarded facilities. The fate of those on death row also needs to be decided without unnecessary delay. This class of convicts is easily tempted to start a revolt for freedom because they have nothing to lose in the end.