AN attempted jail break at the Port Harcourt Correctional Centre in Rivers State has left 12 inmates hospitalised after sustaining bullet wounds on Monday.
The failed jail break was sparked off by the death of an inmate who was engaged in a fight with a fellow inmate, said to be a superior.
The death of the yet-to-be identified inmate resulted in a free-for-all, as friends of the deceased assembled for a reprisal.
It was gathered that the inmate died after being disciplined by a senior inmate for an undisclosed conduct.
As the situation spiralled out of control, a protest ensued and there was confusion in the yard located along the Dockyard Road at the old Port Harcourt township area.
As the melee festered, about 12 inmates who tried to scale the facility’s high walls were repelled by armed guards and other operatives attached to the facility.
The spokesman of the state command of the Nigeria Correctional Service, Juliet Ofoni, confirmed the incident to our correspondent on telephone.
Ofoni, who said nobody died from the shooting, revealed that the authorities intervened in order to restore normalcy.
He stated, “What happened was that two inmates were involved in a fight, and one of them died in the process.
“So the inmates belonging to the faction of the dead inmate started a riot in the yard. They wanted to start a reprisal, thereby causing unrest in the yard.
“The authorities had to come in, and that was how our men shot teargas to quell the disturbance.
“Some of them took advantage of the disturbance and tried to scale the fence. Our men started shooting from outside to show that they were on the ground.
“But you know that they will not just go back quietly, they are agitated because their friend died. About 12 of them, who wanted to scale the fence because they saw that there was a riot situation, were brought down.
“Some of them sustained gunshot wounds and nobody died. The inmate that died was as a result of a fight. But the injured ones are in the hospital receiving treatment.
“At the moment, the situation is under control. Everywhere is calm. But they should not have gone to the extent of causing one of them to die.”
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