By Steven Bockarie Mansaray in Kabala
A jail break at the state prison in Kabala on Sunday led to the escape of two prisoners whom police have described as “hardcore criminals”. Prison and police authorities in the northern Sierra Leonean town say three inmates attacked and overpowered prison warders around 10:00 am. According to Amara Jabbie one of the warders on duty at the time of the escape, they were undertaking a general cleaning of the prison yard when an inmate, Rashid Bah allegedly entered the kitchen and took a knife and an axe which he used to damage the two gates leading to the inside of the prison. Jabbie said that he tried to stop him but the prisoner stabbed him in his hand causing the few other officers who were around to flee. He said that with the gates damaged, the two inmates who were awaiting trial for alleged armed robbery committed in Diang chiefdom made good their escape. Ibrahim Koroma and Ibrahim Turay aka Bollo are still on the run. With the help of people living in the vicinity of the prison Rashid Bah was re-arrested. Some of the other inmates told Politico that the escaped prisoners had been planning this act for quite a long time as they were grumbling that the magistrate who sits in Kabala once or twice a month “always adjourns their case”. The police Local Unit Commander, Superintendent Alimamy Bangura told Politico that the jailbreak happened between 10:00 and 11:00 am. He blamed it on “some amount of negligence” on the part of the prisons department. The LUC also said the incident was “a devastating blow” to the police because the escaped prisoners were “hardcore criminals” who had been arrested by ordinary people describing them as “among the worst I have ever dealt with”. Asked who provided security for the prisons, Supt Bangura said it was prison warders. He said that two months ago the head of the prisons in Kabala informed the District Security Committee (DISEC) meeting that the two prisoners had threatened to escape, but that he asked that armed police security be provided “only at night”. A joint police and prison search for the escapees did not yield dividend. And the local police chief says they were no more searching for them as that was “the duty of the prisons department”. He said however that they had informed villagers to keep watch for them. Similar jail breaks have taken place in Kabala the past, the most recent being two years ago when a man standing trial for murder went on the run. Police are now expressing concern for their own safety with the fugitives still at large. © Politico 26/09/13
