Ghana's Immigration Service (GIS) has announced that it is on the lookout for over 1,800 Nigerian jailbreakers.
Kwame Asuah Takyi, the Comptroller-General of Immigration, has ordered all Border Control Commanders to be on high security alert in order to deter criminals from entering Ghana.
Mr Laud Affrifah, the Deputy Comptroller-General in Charge of Operations and Command Post, signed a statement on his behalf.
"According to information gathered by the Service, over 1,800 inmates escaped from the Owerri Custodial Centre in Imo State, Nigeria, on Monday, April 5th, 2021.
"I've been told to carry the incident to the attention of those in charge." The statement said, "You are to advise officers and men under your command to take note and be on high-security alert to prevent the entry of these criminal escapees into the country."
"Treat as an emergency and take appropriate action," the statement concluded.
After a heavily armed gang stormed the prisons in Owerri, Imo State, Southern Nigeria, more than 1,800 prisoners escaped.
The armed men broke into the jails, engaged guards in a gun fight, and liberated prisoners, according to the National Corrections Authority.
According to authorities, one prisoner died in the stampede that erupted, and one police officer received a minor gunshot wound to the leg. Meanwhile, police officers have thwarted an assault on the prison's armoury.
The authorities blamed the jailbreak on a rebel faction that supports Biafra secession, a decades-old cause in Nigeria's southeast.
"I can confirm that the Nigerian Correctional Service's Imo State Command was attacked in Owerri by unknown gunmen," Imo state corrections service spokesman James Madugba told AFP, adding that the number of escaped inmates had yet to be verified.
Before storming the jail, the attackers arrived in pickup trucks and buses, according to the correctional authority.
Although no group claimed responsibility for the attack, President Muhammadu Buhari described it as a "act of terrorism" perpetrated by anarchists and urged security forces to apprehend the attackers and detainees who had fled.
Nigerian security forces have launched a search operation to apprehend the prisoners, who number 1,844 in total. It's unclear how many of them were convicted criminals and how many were awaiting trial.
In Nigeria, justice is always sluggish, with people spending years in prison before their cases are heard.
Boko Haram, a militant organization, has ruled parts of Nigeria for the past 15 years, including capturing military barracks with no soldiers fleeing.
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