Kumasi Jailbreak Attempt: Prisoners Give Information

Scores of prisoners at the Kumasi Central Prisons are willingly giving vital information concerning what sparked the abortive jailbreak attempt at the facility last week Wednesday evening.

Interior Minister, Mark Woyongo, said the free information being given by the prisoners would go a long way to helping the authorities unearth what culminated in the chaotic scenes at the prisons in order to avert its reoccurrence in future.

“Some of the prisoners are already cooperating with authorities and I am sure we shall get to the bottom of the case soon,” the interior minister told newsmen when he visited the facility.

Mr. Woyongo did not rule out a possible assistance from outside in the failed jailbreak mission which led to the shooting to the death of one prisoner, having been shot by a security agent.

“Snippets of information we are getting show that some people are behind this. It is a well planned jailbreak; fortunately for us, it did not go through as the prisoners anticipated.

“I am told that there were cars standing around the prisons to pick inmates from the scene. That is why the prisoners were planning to break the walls of the prison for the cars to whisk them away,” he intimated.

Mr. Woyongo stressed the need for a thorough investigation to be conducted into the issue so that all those who had a hand in the act could be dealt with accordingly.

The interior minister mentioned congestion as a major quandary facing the facility saying, “The prison is housing over 2,000 people, even though it was built to contain 600 prisoners.”

He added, “There is congestion here and this usually brings pressure on facilities in the prison, which gives room for disaffection and I am not surprised we had this jailbreak attempt here.”

Mr. Woyongo announced that plans were in the pipeline to decongest prisons throughout the country.