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Charles Okah, the convicted mastermind of the October 1, 2010 Abuja bombings, revealed how over 100 detainees at the New Minimum Security Custodial Centre (NMSCC) Maiduguri, Borno State were unlawfully executed after the flood crisis.
Okah told SaharaReporters that the horrible executions occurred on September 10, 2024.
According to SaharaReporters, the Nigerian Correctional Service reported 281 missing convicts from Maiduguri’s Medium Security Custodial Centre.
The service had noted that this followed an evacuation process in the aftermath of the flood incident in the state, as seven inmates were returned to the centre.
In a statement, agency spokesman Umar Abubakar disclosed convicts’ biometrics.
Abubakar said, “The Nigerian Correctional Service has observed the flooding currently being experienced in Maiduguri, Borno State, and its environment.
“The unfortunate incident has left scars, bringing down the walls of the correctional facilities, including the Medium Security Custodial Centre, Maiduguri (MSCC), as well as the staff quarters in the City.
“Upon the evacuation of inmates by officers of the service with support from sister security agencies to a safe and secure facility, 281 inmates were observed to be missing.”
He, however, added that “it is important to note that the service is in the custody of their details, including their biometrics, which is being made available to the public below.
“The service is working in synergy with other security agencies as both covert and overt deployments have been activated to look out for them.
“Presently, a total of seven inmates have been recaptured and returned to custody, while efforts are on the ground to track down the rest and bring them back to safe custody.”
“While this effort is on, the public is assured that the incidence does not impede or affect public safety.”
But in a 14-page letter titled: “An Eyewitness Account: The Systematic Killings of Lunatic Inmates and other Acts of Atrocities in Nigerian Prisons,” By Charles T. Okah (A Prisoner of Conscience), Okah gave a graphic and vivid account on how the inmates were executed and falsely labelled missing by the prison authorities to cover up their atrocities.
According to the letter, Okah said the reason he decided to release the details was because “to remain silent in the face of evil is a form of evil in itself”.
Citing some biblical quotations, Okah said, “in absolute obedience to this sacred mandate, and my patriotic and moral obligation, I have no other choice; even at considerable risk to my life and freedom, than to bring to light once again atrocious acts of darkness inside the Nigerian Prison System where Providence has chosen to plant me by the riverside of corruption and mendacity to flourish as but credible whistle-blower.”
He recounted the events of September 10 and said that the flood that devastated areas of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state in northeastern Nigeria, was no longer news because the floods had already subsided.
The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has purposefully concealed from the public and the wider world the shooting and murder of more than a hundred inmates by the motley, trigger-happy, Sanguinary armed squad unit, which lacked any prior training or orientation on how to handle a natural disaster emergency.
He narrated: “After a section of the NMSCC perimeter fence collapsed under the pressure of the flood, a raging torrent of water began pouring in and filling up the exposed prison at an alarming rate, causing hydrophobic inmates to panic. Their anxiety was further heightened when the armed squad unit began firing live bullets directly into the phalanx of prisoners to discourage any thoughts of escaping.
“But this had an opposite effect. Chaos and a stampede ensued as some courageous eyewitnesses who survived the ordeal and now evacuated to the Maiduguri Maximum Security Custodial Centre (MMSCE) gave their names and eyewitness accounts should the government require them to testify during an inquest into the shooting and deaths as demanded in the Nigerian Correctional Act 2019.”
He said that the Assistant Controller General and Zonal Co-ordinator Zone C, Controller, Borno State Command and the Officer -in -Charge, NMSCC had questions to answer for sweeping the shooting and killing of prisoners under the carpet, and then deceptively listing the dead as “escapees-at-large” and this was after the authorities had them buried alongside drowned flood victims in mass graves.
Okah explained that before the flood incident, four versions of the report on the systematic killings of lunatic inmates were intercepted by the prison authorities in MMSCC. “I was locked in Solitary Confinement for months and only released after receiving a threatening warning: “keep quiet, or else…”
“But it will be the height of cowardice on my part if I allow my conscience to be controlled by fear and coercion. By publishing this report, I am sounding the clarion call to all like-minded people of good conscience, let us collectively condemn and confront these dark deeds head-on by shining our lights of Truth so brightly at full beam, so as to flood, overwhelm and extirpate these forces of darkness and Mendacious in Nigeria’s corrupt, Punitive and mendacious prison (correctional) system.”
He called for the resignation of the Controller General, NCoS, if he was aware of the shooting and killings of inmates during the flood, hasn’t ordered an inquest to date.
SaharaReporters had reported that the National Emergency Management Agency, said that more than 23,000 households were affected.
The flood began after the Alau Dam on the Ngadda River, 20km south of Maiduguri, overflowed following heavy rains leading to the town’s worst flooding in 30 years, according to the United Nations Human Rights Refugee Council and Maiduguri Metropolitan Council residents.
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