Following the botched jailbreak at the Abakaliki prisons on August 18, inmates who sustained gunshot wounds have started receiving treatment.
There have been varying casuality figures on the number of injured and dead persons during the failed jailbreak.
Sources have said 19 inmates died during the attempted jailbreak with 16 others injured, but prison officials said 6 inmates died with 10 others injured.
According to Premium Times, some of the inmates who are being treated at the Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki are chained to the hospital beds.
The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Emeka Onwe, said all wounded inmates are receiving adequate treatment.
“All I know is that the inmates in our hospital have gunshot injuries, whether as a result of accidental discharge or not,” he said. “Our orthopaedic surgeons are working hard to carry out surgeries on the inmates to remove the bullets that penetrated the inmates during the incident”.
He added that “none of them is in the intensive care unit, they are all at the Accident and Emergency Unit. We planning to take them into the theatre and carry out surgery on them as recommended by doctors.”
According to the Comptroller General of Prisons, Jaffaru Ahmed, the attempted jailbreak started when some inmates resisted the routine cell-search in the morning.
“They suddenly became riotous, broke other cells and released the inmates.
“They eventually broke into the workshop to arm themselves with dangerous weapons and severely attacked some staff trapped in the yard while others made for the main gate and pulled it down,” he said.
He further said a number of them attempted to escape.
“The bold attempt was resisted by the combined team of armed personnel who presented what would have turned into a catastrophic security situation had the inmates succeeded in escaping,” he said.
Dolapo is a writer and journalist who works with YNaija. He has interests in Christianity, politics and sports.
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