Abakaliki jail-break: Rights Group accuses prison officials of extrajudicial killings
Tue Aug 23, 2016 09:50:am National
3K By Buchi Obichie
Officials of the Abakaliki federal prisons, were on Monday accused by the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR, Ebonyi Chapter, of extra-judicial killings in the attempted jail-break which occurred in the State last week.
The development follows findings that 14 inmates were reportedly shot dead during the incident which caused pandemonium at the prisons, its environs and amongst Ebonyi residents.
However, while visiting the prison a day after the incident occurred, the Controller General of Prisons, Ja'afaru Ahmed, officially confirmed that only six inmates lost their lives during the episode.
Briefing newsmen in Abakaliki, the CDHR State Chairman, Comrade Emeka Anosike, further accused the prison officials of deliberately misinforming the public on the true happenings during the unfortunate event.
"We are not happy the way inmates were killed in the incident of last week. The state Controller General of Prisons, Mrs. Emilia Oputa in a press conference at the prison yard said there was no casualty from the attempted jailbreak.
"There was a big twist to the claim when the Controller of Prisons, Ja'afaru Ahmed visited Ebonyi state to have a first hand information of the incident, and when he went to brief the Governor of Ebonyi state of the incident, he confirmed that six prison inmates died in the process of security agents attempt to quell the attempted jailbreak and that many others sustained various degrees of injuries.
"With this obvious contradictory statements of the State Controller of Prisons and the Controller General of Prisons, the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Ebonyi state branch felt that there was a cover up and conducted a preliminary investigation into the matter which revealed that not less than 14 prison inmates of the federal prisons Abakaliki were deliberately shot and killed by a combined team of security agents, including the police mobile force drafted from the police headquarters Abakaliki and the armed prison guards, and about 16 other inmates were critically injured as result of the gunshots they sustained from the attack by security agents", the group said.
Describing the killings as an obvious act of human rights violation as stated in the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the group demanded for the immediate removal of the state Controller of Prisons and her Deputy.
Rejecting the three man panel of inquiry set-up by the prisons authorities to investigate the killings, the group noted that the action of the Controller General was like one being a judge in his or her own case.
"The panel of inquiry set up by Ja'afaru to look into the matter is unacceptable to us because it is like being judge over one's case. We want an independent judicial panel into the matter and not the prisons setting up panel.
"There will be lots of cover-up in the panel set up by the Comptroller General of Prisons but if is a judicial panel of inquiry,
witnesses will be called, some inmates who are alive will be called, the hospital authorities will be called and we will also be called to testify on what happened," they said.
The development follows findings that 14 inmates were reportedly shot dead during the incident which caused pandemonium at the prisons, its environs and amongst Ebonyi residents.
However, while visiting the prison a day after the incident occurred, the Controller General of Prisons, Ja'afaru Ahmed, officially confirmed that only six inmates lost their lives during the episode.
Briefing newsmen in Abakaliki, the CDHR State Chairman, Comrade Emeka Anosike, further accused the prison officials of deliberately misinforming the public on the true happenings during the unfortunate event.
"We are not happy the way inmates were killed in the incident of last week. The state Controller General of Prisons, Mrs. Emilia Oputa in a press conference at the prison yard said there was no casualty from the attempted jailbreak.
"There was a big twist to the claim when the Controller of Prisons, Ja'afaru Ahmed visited Ebonyi state to have a first hand information of the incident, and when he went to brief the Governor of Ebonyi state of the incident, he confirmed that six prison inmates died in the process of security agents attempt to quell the attempted jailbreak and that many others sustained various degrees of injuries.
"With this obvious contradictory statements of the State Controller of Prisons and the Controller General of Prisons, the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, Ebonyi state branch felt that there was a cover up and conducted a preliminary investigation into the matter which revealed that not less than 14 prison inmates of the federal prisons Abakaliki were deliberately shot and killed by a combined team of security agents, including the police mobile force drafted from the police headquarters Abakaliki and the armed prison guards, and about 16 other inmates were critically injured as result of the gunshots they sustained from the attack by security agents", the group said.
Describing the killings as an obvious act of human rights violation as stated in the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the group demanded for the immediate removal of the state Controller of Prisons and her Deputy.
Rejecting the three man panel of inquiry set-up by the prisons authorities to investigate the killings, the group noted that the action of the Controller General was like one being a judge in his or her own case.
"The panel of inquiry set up by Ja'afaru to look into the matter is unacceptable to us because it is like being judge over one's case. We want an independent judicial panel into the matter and not the prisons setting up panel.
"There will be lots of cover-up in the panel set up by the Comptroller General of Prisons but if is a judicial panel of inquiry,
witnesses will be called, some inmates who are alive will be called, the hospital authorities will be called and we will also be called to testify on what happened," they said.
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