Five inmates who escaped from the Koton Karfe Medium Custodial facility in Kogi State have been recaptured.
The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) made the revelation while explaining the incident at the facility on Monday morning.
According to the Acting Controller General of the NCoS Sylvester Nwakuche, the service is determined to recapture the remaining seven inmates who escaped from the facility.
“The Comptroller General further mentioned that three of the escaped inmates have been apprehended by the Correctional officers while one of the officers in charge of the centre died as a result of torture by the inmates,” the agency said.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Interior Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo has ordered a probe into the incident while describing it as unfortunate.
A statement from the minister’s media aide Babatunde Alao quoted his principal as saying that technology will be deployed to recapture the inmates.
The minister also ordered the acting NCoS Controller-General to visit the facility in Kogi to evaluate the situation and commence a comprehensive audit to unravel the events that led to the incident.
“We are on top of the situation. Our men are on the ground in Kogi, and I have ordered a comprehensive audit of the situation,” he said.
The escape is the latest in jailbreaks in Nigeria. Experts and authorities have often blamed old infrastructure and overcrowding for such incidents.
Earlier this month, Minister Tunji-Ojo said that some 4,000 prisoners were pardoned in 2024 to help ease congestion in the prisons and cut government spending.
Last year, nearly 120 people escaped after torrential rains brought down buildings and a perimeter wall in Suleja prison, near the capital, Abuja.
In April 2021, over 1,800 prisoners escaped after gunmen attacked a prison in Imo State. More than 800 others escaped in another jailbreak in Oyo State in July of the same year.