IRT Thwarts Owerri’s Jailbreak

Officers from the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) have re-arrested two of his inmates who fled the facility when Owerri Detention Center was attacked by a shooter in April 2021.

Okechukwu Edison and Sunday Morrison were re-arrested in Port Harcourt, Rivers in an operation led by his IRT Commander Olatunji Disu, the Deputy Commissioner of Police.

Two fugitives were arrested on suspicion of plotting to kidnap a female lawyer after escaping from prison, according to a statement released by the Commander’s Office on Sunday.

After holding the victim for several days, they received a ransom of N5 million.
The statement further revealed that both Edison and Morrison had served 11 years in correctional facilities for crimes including kidnapping, robbery and car robbery before fleeing. Regarding the duo’s re-arrest, DCP Disu said that when they received reports of the kidnapping of a female lawyer who had been in custody for three days, IRT officers were assigned to conduct search and rescue operations, which led to their arrest. Suspect of unfinished building.

More than 1,884 inmates are said to have escaped after gunmen in vehicles armed with bazookas, machine guns and rifles broke into the Owerri detention center on April 5, 2021.