Lafia Jail Break: Officials Tortured 2 Inmates To Death, Shot One On The Leg...Lawyer

• Prison inmates

Two inmates of Lafia prison in Nasarawa State were tortured to death by prison officials following the demonstration that led to last month’s attempted jail break by inmates.

Daily independent also gathered that one of the inmates was shot in the leg. The inmates had last month protested lack of water and insufficient food.

Counsel to the deceased persons, Usman Elegu of Elegu and Elegu Chambers, confirmed the deaths to Daily Independent in Lafia.

However, officials of the Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS), Nasarawa State Command, has refused to either confirm or deny the report, referring enquiries to the Public Relations Officer of NPS at its headquarters in Abuja.

Daily Independent, which visited the command to speak to the Comptroller, Kunle Sanusi, was denied access even though he was on seat.

Secretary to the Comptroller, A.M. Adamu, ushered us in to the office of the Deputy Comptroller Administration, Oti U. B. who maintained that we must see the PRO in Abuja.

However, those that died during the torture that was carried out by prison officials in a bid to extract information from the inmates shortly after the demonstration are a 33-year-old retired soldier, Musa Aliyu, and a 30-year-old man, Godwin Francis, while 26-year-old Monday Sati was shot in the leg.

Although, Sati is still receiving treatment at the prison’s clinic, the total of those that died during the incident is three.

Lawyer to the deceased persons, Usman Elegu of Elegu and Elegu Chambers, confirmed the deaths, while at the mortuary of Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital (DASH), Lafia, family of Musa Aliyu were at hand to take possession of their ward’s corpse.

Shedding more light on the incident, he explained that two days after the demonstration and attempted jail break, prison officials beat up all the inmates and later, specially selected others for torture among them Aliyu and Francis.

He further explained that the prison officials, who beat the inmates with batons and clubs, beat Aliyu to a coma before returning him into the cell.

And to cover up for the offence, the NPS in the state allegedly wrote to all the courts in the state that it would not be bringing any of the inmates to the courts for the next one month.

Elegu told us that he knew something was amiss when he was refused entry to see his clients at the prison, adding that even though he formally wrote the officials to allow him access to his clients (Aliyu and Francis), he was denied.

The lawyer said he finally got information that Aliyu was dead a week after his death, when he gained entry into the prison that he learnt that Francis was also dead.

He noted that the family has insisted on carrying out an autopsy on the corpse.

Though, the body of Aliyu has been released to his family that of Francis is still lying at the DASH mortuary.