Five die and 176 escape as armed gang springs comrades from jail

Five people were killed last week when an armed militia group launched a midnight attack on the main prison in the southeastern oil town of Port Harcourt to free several of its members awaiting trial for murder, a police spokesman said.

Police spokesman Emmanuel Ighodalo said 176 prisoners escaped from the jail on Friday night as about 100 members of the Outlaws, a local militia group, shot their way into the building.

The raid succeeded in freeing several leaders of the militia group who had been remanded in custody by the high court in Port Harcourt earlier in the day on murder charges, he added.

Ighodalo said police reinforcements were rushed to the prison during the attack and police shot dead five prisoners who were trying to escape in the mass breakout. A further 16 were recaptured over the weekend, he added.

Earlier on Friday, 51 prisoners escaped from Ogwashi-Uku jail, 150 km north of Port Harcourt in an unrelated incident, the police spokesman said.

The oil-producing Niger delta of southeastern Nigeria has been plagued by powerful armed gangs for several years.

Some of them have been set up to fight for the interests of rival ethnic groups and several make money from crime, particularly the theft and smuggling of crude oil and kidnapping for ransom.

Human rights activists say many of the gangs have close links with local politicians.