According to Baruch Spinoza, if you want the present to be different from the past and study the past.
Only those who really lived through it can adequately recount a society’s history. Nigerians are the best at rewriting our past. The past must be consciously recalled for the sake of education.
In an effort to raise the level of awareness for enlightenment and educational purpose, WITHIN NIGERIA highlighted one notable events that occurred on April 5. This particular event contributed to the historical discussion of the giant of Africa, Nigeria.
Gunmen killed three and released 1,844 prisoners from a prison
On this day, April 5 in 2021, gunmen reportedly killed three and released 1844 prisoners from a Correctional Centre in Owerri, Imo State.
More than 1,800 convicts are reportedly missing in southeast Nigeria after escaping when highly armed terrorists stormed their jail using explosives and rocket-propelled grenades, according to the authorities.
A spokesman for the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a proscribed separatist organization, denied any involvement in the attack in the city of Owerri, according to Nigerian police.
President Muhammadu Buhari is currently confronting a number of significant security concerns, including the separatist movement in the southeast, a decade-long Islamic insurgency in the northeast, a wave of school kidnappings in the northwest, and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.
The incident in a city close to the oil-rich Niger Delta, which supports Africa’s largest economy and top crude exporter, was described by Buhari as a “act of terrorism.” He gave the go-ahead for security personnel to seize the eluding detainees.
Approximately 2:15 a.m. (0115 GMT) on Monday, the Nigerian Correctional Service reported that the attackers stormed the facility.
According to a statement published by the facility’s spokesman late on Monday, “the Owerri Custodial Centre in Imo state has been assaulted by unknown gunmen and forcedly freed a total of 1,844 detainees in detention.”
According to the authorities, the intruders entered the prison yard and detonated explosives in the administration block of the prison.
According to preliminary investigations, the attackers are Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) members, according to Nigeria Police Force spokesman Frank Mba.
A territory in southeast Nigeria that IPOB calls Biafra demands independence. The Nigerian government and secessionists engaged in civil war from 1967 to 1970, which claimed one million lives.
The region’s security has gotten worse over the past few months. Since January, there have been attacks on several police stations, considerable quantities of munitions have been taken, and there have been rumors of clashes between the military and the paramilitary Eastern Security Network (ESN), a branch of the IPOB.
But, a representative for IPOB informed Reuters that the organisation was not responsible for the prison invasion.
“The attack in Owerri, Imo state, did not involve IPOB or ESN. Attacking security personnel or prison facilities is not our mandate, “In a telephone call, the IPOB spokesman remarked.