Another jail break averted in Abakaliki prison over agitation of indian hemp by inmates

Barely three months after a jail break occurred in Abakaliki Federal Prison, Ebonyi State that involved  the loss of lives of prisoners, another attempted jail break was on Friday averted  by the prison authorities .

The state controller of prison Mrs Emilia Oputa in a telephone interview disclosed that the inmates were agitating over their denial of Indian hemp by the authorities of the prison.

 She accused inmates on awaiting trial list as the masterminds of the agitation.

 According to her, “I was in the office when I was called that the inmates were agitating,  asking for this and  that and I rushed there and asked them to select two representatives from each cell to enable me hear from them because we have a way we operate.

“After listening, I discovered some of the things they were agitating was for Indian hemp to be  allowed inside their cells and we have stopped that,” the controller said.

 Mrs Oputa disclosed that the prison had  950 inmates as she added that   the authorities have  rules and regulations which guide the operations of the prison.

“We cannot always oblige them anytime they want this or that.  They want to choose their provost the way they want,  I told them I will come and conduct election for a provost, and they are complaining of irrelevant things,” she said.

 Other agitations of the inmates according to the controller, was that  they said they wouldn’t want to see some members of staff of the Prison, including the Deputy Comptroller of Prison  (DCP), which she rebuffed them.