Governor Obaseki Gives 3 Days Ultimatum To Escaped Benin Prison Inmates To Return
Inmates of Benin
Medium Security Correctional Centre and Oko Medium Security Correctional Centre
who escaped from the facilities on Monday October 19, have been given
till Friday October 23 to return voluntarily or face the wrath of the law.
Governor Godwin Obaseki
gave the ultimatum while on an assessment tour of the affected NCoS
centres and the police stations that were burnt in Benin City by the hoodlums.
He was accompanied by his deputy, Philip Shaibu; a deputy inspector-general of
police, Celestine Okoye; the state commissioner of police, Johnson Kokumo;
representatives of the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Air Force, Nigeria Security and
Civil Defence Corps and the Federal Road Safety Corps, among others.
Obaseki who stated that his
government would not sit down and watch hoodlums operate in such a manner,
added that the attacks on the security facilities were orchestrated by
criminally minded people.
He said;
“You will agree with me
that this is not in the spirit of the #EndSARS protest. This is sheer
criminality while the real protesters were focusing on the reform of our
policing system and not to destroy government property, destroy prisons, and
release inmates.
“So, you can tell that
there were some criminal intentions behind these acts and the #EndSARS protest
in Edo was hijacked by criminal and they used the opportunity to come and
release their colleagues who were held in our correctional centre.
“We condemn the act
wholeheartedly and we expect that even the #EndSARS protesters would join us in
condemning this dastardly act. The government cannot sit down and fold its arms
to allow the breakdown of law and order in our society because everybody would
be affected and having undertaken the assessment and seen the extent of
destruction that has taken place, we would now move swiftly into action.
“Fortunately, the Inspector-General of
Police, Mohammed Adamu, understanding the gravity of what has happened in Edo
has asked the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Celestine Okoye, to come to
Benin to put the situation under control. We are also fortunate that the
Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces has allowed the military to
join the police in stabilising the situation to bring things under control.
“I want to use this
situation to thank the law-abiding citizens of the state for having the
presence of mind call while different parts of the state were being attacked in
the guise of EndSARS protest. What we have a problem with are hooliganism and
sheer brigandage and that we will not accept or tolerate in Edo State.
“We know that some of the
inmates may have been released by their plan and others used the opportunity to
get out of the facilities. We are using this opportunity to appeal to all
inmates in our correctional services who have escaped to come back on their own
before the close of business on Friday, this week.
“If they come in and go to
the Nigeria Police Force Command headquarters in Benin City, nothing will be
done to them. However, those who do not report back after Friday night, we have
all their records, we have their biometrics, we would go after them and ensure
that we bring them and the appropriate sanction will be meted against them.”
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