More than 1,800 prisoners escaped from a prison in southeastern Nigeria over Sunday to Monday following an attack by armed men, the attack has not been claimed, but the suspicion turns to Ipob, the independence group from Biafra, established in the region of Imo, where this attack took place.
The Nigerian police chief said tonight that “according to the first parts of the investigation”, the attackers “came in numbers, with sophisticated weapons”, would be “members of the IPOB [the Indigenous People of Biafra, le mouvement indépendantiste du Biafra ndlr] “.
Earlier, President Muhammadu Buhari had condemned “an act of terrorism” and attributed the attack to “anarchists” and “criminals” without giving further details.
Prison authorities have confirmed the escape of more than 1,800 prisoners from Owerri State Prison in Imo State and reported the sequence of the attack. At two o’clock, armed men arrived in large numbers in pick-ups and used explosives to enter the prison, where they attacked the security personnel present. Violent exchange of fire took place according to the statement. These “armed men” also attacked the police headquarters in Owerri, where they were driven back before they could reach the armor.
This afternoon, the spokesman for the Ipob movement denied that they were the origin of these attacks. But the independence group recently published training videos from a new militia called the “Eastern Security Network.” Its members are now in the eyes of the authorities.
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