More than 1,800 inmates escaped from a prison in Nigeria's southeastern Imo state on Monday after an attack by "armed men," the Nigerian Prison Service said.
"The Owerri prison (...) was attacked at about 2:15 a.m. Monday by unidentified gunmen who forcibly released 1,844 inmates," Francis Enobore, spokesman for the Nigerian Prison Service, said in a statement.
"Witnesses reported seeing a large number of armed men in pickup trucks (...), they immediately attacked the prison staff before blowing up the main gate," the statement said.
The Imo State Prisons Communication Officer, James Madugba, confirmed the attack and said the "situation is under control", urging residents to "continue to go about their business".
Imo State is in the former independence region of Biafra, where the IPOB (The Indigenous People of Biafra) movement has a history of separatist activity and has recently shown videos of dozens, if not hundreds, of fighters in training.
However, the group's spokesperson, Emma Powerful, denied any link to the attack in a statement sent to AFP, calling any information accusing them "false" and "misleading.
Source: AFP
