Four Prison Officials, Inmate Killed as Gunmen Attack Court-bound Van in Warri

Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan

Omon-Julius Onabuin Warri

It was a bloody day in Warri, Delta State, yesterday. It was not the usual ethnic clash, nor armed robbery, but armed banditry.

A gang of criminals suspected to be allies of some inmates who were being taken to court by prison officials in Warri, intercepted the van carrying the inmates and launched a deadly attack on the wardens and the driver.

When the staccato of bullets ended, four prisons officials and one of the inmates targeted for rescue by the gang, were all lying lifeless in the van, with their bodies perforated by hot lead.

Three other prison officials were critically wounded. They are now in an undisclosed hospital for treatment.
The attack which took place at about 9.a.m. yesterday was at the Okere roundabout, few metres away from the Okere prisons.  
The armed gang was said to have operated with two vehicles parked at the ever-busy roundabout unknown to the prison officials, who were rattled and taken unawares by the assailants. They had hardly settled down in the van, when the attack was launched with arithmetic precision.

Police authorities while confirming the report to THISDAY yesterday said that the gunmen laid an ambush for the court-bound van at Okere round about.

Speaking with THISDAY yesterday, Warri Area Commander, Mr. Hussaini Rabiu, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), said information available to the police showed that two prisons warden and an inmate who was being taken with others to court in the district were killed instantly when the gunmen launched the attack. The attackers hijacked the prison van and drove away with the surviving inmates, although “three of the prison inmates, who fled with the attackers after the encounter, have been re-arrested by the police and handed over to the Prisons Department in Warri.”

Rabiu also said that three other prison officials who sustained various degrees of gunshot injuries were receiving medical treatment at an undisclosed hospital in the area.

Rabiu, had earlier told THISDAY that the police were still awaiting details of the attack but added that policemen were sent on the trail of the fleeing attackers as soon as information about the attack reached him.

THISDAY further gathered that sporadic gunshots rent the air while the attack lasted. The attack created stampede as people ran in different directions for their lives.

Even some morning worshippers in the premises of Sacred Heart Catholic Cathedral also ran for cover as no one knew exactly what the gunshots were all about.

“People were as usual busy here; the traders were selling and buying and vehicles and many people were moving – you know, it was the peak hour of the morning with the school-run and all that….,” an eyewitness said