by Rachel Ogbu

A 24-hour manhunt has commenced to ensure that all the prisoners that escaped from the Olokuta Medium Security Prison are re-arrested.

Last Sunday, a group of suspected criminals attacked the prisons in an attempt to free some of their gang members inside and about 175 prisoneers were said to have escaped including hardened criminals.

The Comptroller General of Nigeria Prisons Service, Zakari Ibrahim, said the service was going to hunt the criminals down and put them back behind bars.

According to reports, yesterday policemen in Akure said five fleeing prisoners were re-arrested and returned to custody to add to the others that were caught.

So far, 59 have been re-arrested.

Police image maker, Wole Ogodo, said in Akure yesterday that despite the fact that criminals were on the loose, there has not been an increase in crime rate.

“The attack on the prisons was carried out by some robbers mainly aimed at liberating some members of their gang who were in prisons custody. They had since escaped outside the state.”

He guaranteed the public that police officers would follow through in their promise to re-arrest the remaining fleeing inmates as those already nabbed and had been returned to custody.

[READ: How I escaped from prison – Re-arrested suspect (PICTURED)]

Vanguard reports:

Ibrahim who visited Olokuta for an on-the-spot assessment of the prison condemned the level of damage by the gunmen which led to the escape of the inmates.

Reacting to congestion in the prisons across the country, Ibrahim attributed the problem to awaiting trial cases in courts which makes the prisons to overflow its capacity.

As at Tuesday this week, 54 were apprehended from villages and towns across the state by the detectives deployed to all the council areas by the police authorities in the state.

No fewer than 30 armed bandits invaded the prison to set free 175 inmates of the prison especially hardened criminals that reportedly arrested in connection with the robbery of a new generation bank last year in the state.

Of the prisoners so far re-arrested, Ogodo said that none of the robbery suspects that took part in the bank robbery that escaped last Sunday have been re arrested.

Those arrested so far, according to police sources, are not those connected to the bank robbery but other suspects who are standing trial for other offences.

Ogodo said the additional five prisoners were arrested in Okitipupa and its environs.

Speaking with newsmen, the Comptroller of the Prisons, Mr Tunde Olayiwola, assured that more of the fleeing prisoners would be re-arrested.

Olayiwola said that the re-arrested inmates were caught from bushes, through information and their data which are in the custody of the prison.