Armed Groups Rain Prison With Machine Guns To RPG, 1,884 Prisoners Escape

Prison illustration. (@ yoavaziz / unsplash)

JAKARTA - More than 1,800 inmates have escaped prisons in Nigeria after being attacked by gunmen on Monday, April 5 local time, officials said.

The attackers reportedly entered the prison grounds in the south-eastern city of Owerri using explosives to detonate the administrative bloc.

Nigeria's Correctional Service has confirmed that 1,844 inmates escaped from prisons in Imo state.

Heavy gunmen stormed the Owerri Detention Center in the early hours of Monday, having arrived in a pickup truck and bus, the service said.

A police spokesman said the attackers were carrying rocket propelled grenades (RPGs), machine guns, explosives and rifles.

It is known that six detainees were reported to have returned, while 35 refused to escape from prison when the attack occurred.

President Muhammadu Buhari called the attack an "act of terrorism" carried out anarchically. He asked the security forces to arrest the attackers and escaped prisoners.

Police have accused a banned separatist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra, of carrying out the attack. However, the group has reportedly denied involvement.

A spokesman for the separatist group Indigenous People of Biafra said the allegations behind Monday's attack were lies.

To note, Imo State has long been a breeding ground for separatist groups. Meanwhile, relations between the central government and the Igbo natives are tense.

In addition, since January several police stations and vehicles in southeastern Nigeria have been attacked and large amounts of ammunition stolen. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.