Foiled jail-break: Bayelsa govt. commends security agents

 From: Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa

 The Bayelsa State Government has commended security agencies in the state for foiling a jailbreak attempt at the Okaka Prisons.

 This is even as the state Police command has launched a manhunt for all the accomplices mentioned by the prime suspect in the foiled jailbreak attempt.

Acting Governor Gboribiogha John Jonah commended security agents and officials of the Nigeria Prison Service, Okaka, Yenagoa, when he visited the prison to assess the situation.

 He assured the Prison authorities that the State government would continue to partner with them to ensure that they discharge their duties effectively and efficiently.

The Acting Governor also pleaded with relatives of inmates to educate their relations in Prison on the need for them to conduct themselves properly and decently while serving their terms in prison.

Also speaking, the state’s Comptroller of the Nigeria Prison Service, Okaka, Mr. Victor Chiabua, disclosed that six inmates forced their way out of their cells and attempted to escape, but the swift reaction of his officers, with the assistance from sister security agencies, frustrated the jail-break attempt.

 Chiabua, who lamented the issue of congestion in the prison attributed prison congestion, largely to the slow pace of dispensation of justice by the judiciary.

According to him the prison was also congested due to the fact that a good number of inmates were persons awaiting trial that allegedly committed bail able offences, urging relatives of such persons to perfect their bail conditions and take them on bail.

 Meanwhile the state government has declared a total of N3.2 billion as money available to the state as at the end of the month of June.

 Jonah, who presented the income and expenditure profile of the state for the months of May and June, at a transparency media briefing in Government House, Yenagoa, explained that the gross inflow from the Federation Account for June stood at 10.1 billion.

He said the components of the gross inflow comprises, derivation N4.7 billion, statutory allocation of N1.7 billion, budget support N1 billion, exchange differential N1 billion, stabilisation fund N93.5 million, Value Added Tax N720.1 million and refund from other states was N57.5 million.