Post date: Sep 09, 2010 4:34:46 PM
Heavily armed gunmen attack a prison in central Nigeria, freeing more than 750 inmates, including suspected members of a militant Islamic sect.
BAUCHI, NIGERIA (SEPTEMBER 8, 2010) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) CHANNELS TV - Armed raiders stormed a prison in central Nigeria late on Tuesday (September 7), releasing 759 inmates, including 173 members of a radical Islamic sect.
Shocked residents of Bauchi were examining the damaged prison on Wednesday (September 8), and telling of a group of men who calmly told them to leave the prison area before the raid.
"I heard three people that were near me whispering at me that, 'If you have your bike or your motor car, please rush and take it and go to your house, because we are going to do something here. We came here to rescue our own people, we are not here for you.' So, it's OK. I was standing, then, these people before they finish up... they go out... we started hearing some gunfire," said Babayo Shehu.
State police said the gunmen killed four people, including two bodyguards, and set part of the prison on fire and that everything possible was being done to track down the escaped prisoners.
Shola Ogundipe, the head of Bauchi prison, said the attack began around 6pm (1700GMT), when people were preparing to break their Ramadan fast. He said the prison's normal capacity of around 500 had swelled to 759, partly because it was holding 173 members of the Boko Haram sect.
"They came in with weapons and cutlass and they were able to overpower the guards, they broke into the cells and freed members of their sect and other inmates. Apparently they used most of the inmates as shields to be able to get out of this place," he said.
Boko Haram is a radical Islamic sect believed to be behind an uprising which killed hundreds of people in and around the northern city of Maiduguri a year ago.
Followers of Boko Haram -- which means "Western education is sinful" in the Hausa language spoken across northern Nigeria -- want sharia (Islamic law) imposed more widely across Africa's most populous nation.