YENAGOA, Nigeria (Reuters) – More than 1,800 prisoners are on the run in southern Nigeria after escaping when heavily armed men set fire to their jail with explosives and rockets, authorities said.
Nigerian police say they believe a banned separatist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), is behind the attack in the city of Owerri, but a spokesman for the group denies involvement.
The secessionist movement in the southeast is one of several serious security challenges facing President Muhammadu Buhari, including a decade-long Islamic uprising in the northeast, a spate of school kidnappings in the northwest and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea.
Buhari said the attack, in a city near the oil-rich Niger Delta region, which is the backbone of Africa’s leading crude exporter and largest economy, was an “act of terrorism”. He ordered security forces to arrest the fleeing prisoners.
According to the Nigerian Correctional Service, the attackers stormed the facility at around 02:15 (0115 GMT) on Monday.
“The Owerri Conservation Center in Imo State has been attacked by unknown gunmen and released a total of 1844 prisoners in custody,” his spokesman said in a statement late Monday.
According to police, attackers used explosives to explode the administrative block of the prison and enter the prison.
“Preliminary investigations have revealed that the attackers are members of the banned indigenous population of Biafra (IPOB),” said Frank Mba, a spokesman for the Nigerian police force.
IPOB wants independence for a region in southeastern Nigeria he calls Biafra. One million people were killed in a civil war between 1967 and 70 between the Nigerian government and secessionists there.
In recent months, security in the region has deteriorated. Several police stations have been attacked since January, with large amounts of ammunition stolen and reports of the IPOB’s paramilitary wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN), clashing with the military.
But an IPOB spokesman told Reuters the group did not carry out the raid.
“IPOB and ESN were not involved in the attack in the state of Owerri, Imo. It is not our mandate to attack security personnel or prison attacks, ‘the IPOB spokesperson said in a call.
Reporting by Tife Owolabi in Yenagoa and Anamesere Igboeroteonwu in Onitsha; Additional reporting by Camillus Eboh in Abuja; Writing by Tom Hogue and Alexis Akwagyiram; Edited by Raissa Kasolowsky