With the dust over the jail break at Oko Prison in Benin City on Monday yet to settle down, a Human rights lawyer Jefferson Uwoghiren, has called for the immediate closure of all the prison houses located inside the ancient city of Benin, Edo state capital.
Uwoghiren in a statement made available to newsmen Monday said “it is shocking how the prison inmates who escaped from the cells promptly fused and melted like butter with the crowd, into the City into our homes, and into our surrounding bushes since morning”.
According to him, “This record breaking jail break is horrendously made worst, by the ominous silence of the Prison authority, Warders, sorry nothing correctional about them. The overwheming incompetence of the Prison Officers is detonatingly enabling by the official silence of all concerned”.
The full statement titled ‘Close the Prisons’ read:
“This is the monstrously mind boggling video of convicted armed robbers, rapists, murderers, confident tricksters, drug dealers, ritualists, masters and mistresses of mayhems, escaping from Oko Prison, Benin City today, in consequences of #EndSARS riots.
Over 1000 convicted and Awaiting Trial Inmates jubilantly strolled into the City, like heroes coming home in a prisoners exchange program.
It’s shocking how they promptly fused and melted like butter with the crowd, into the City into our homes, and into our surrounding bushes since morning. This record breaking jail break is horrendously made worst, by the ominous silence of the Prison authority, Warders, sorry nothing correctional about them. The overwheming incompetence of the Prison Officers is detonatingly enabling by the official silence of all concerned.
No report of recapture. No report of booty. No reassurance. No explanation. Yet danger looms so large out there. A fugitive from justice is more dangerous than a snake, because the stakes are deadly. A time bomb.
This stickly implosive action today, would have been avoided if our unceasing advice and admonitions have been considered. There is no strategic or beneficial reason for the continuing operation of Benin Prison, Sapele Road, Oko Prison, Airport Road, in the heart of Benin City!!!! A complete waste of space.
Government should close these prisons, turn the land into a remarkable use, preferably a school, and build a new one 25 kilometers outside Benin. Jailhouse proximity to courts is no excuse for the dangerous gambits we play with the citizens anytime there is a riot in town.
We don’t want jailhouses in our City. We don’t want felonous characters in our City. We want Schools and Parks!!! Enough is Enough.”
