The acting Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Correctional Service, John Mrabure, has ordered a comprehensive investigation into the attack on Owerri prison in the early hours of Monday.

Mr Mrabure also announced that six of the almost 2,000 inmates had returned.

“At the last count, six inmates have so far voluntarily returned to the facility while 35 inmates refused to escape from custody during the attack,” he said. 

The spokesman for the NCoS, Francis Enobore, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja.

Mr Mrabure added that the prison service would carry out the assignment in collaboration with other security organisations.

He further disclosed that a “search and recover operations” to recapture the fleeing inmates had begun.

The Owerri prison attacked by gunmen, freeing 1,844 inmates.

The attackers, who stormed the facility at about 02:15hrs on Monday, used explosives to blast the administrative block through which they accessed the facility.

They reportedly arrived at the prison in several Hilux vans, and Sienna buses armed with sophisticated weapons shot at the security guards on duty.

Mr Mrabure appealed to Imo residents and other Nigerians to volunteer useful information to facilitate the fleeing inmates’ rearrest.

He, however, assured the people that the security of custodial centres across the country remained sacrosanct.

He equally directed all officers attached to custodial facilities to remain vigilant at this trying period of the NCoS.

(NAN)