127 prisoners escape in Nigerian jail attack

One hundred twenty-seven prison inmates escaped when gunmen attacked their jailhouse in Nigeria’s eastern Adamawa state, a prison chief said on Sunday.

“A total of 127 inmates escaped following the attack. So far, we have not recaptured any of them,” said Adamawa state prison chief Andrew Barka.
Only one prisoner, who was shot and injured in the leg, was left behind in the prison in the town of Ganye after the Friday attack, he said.
“We lost a deputy comptroller in charge of the Ganye prison in the attack. He was shot dead by the gunmen,” Barka told AFP.
He said that the prison gate was torn down and the cells were forced open by the gunmen, allowing the prisoners to escape.
The gunmen killed 25 people in series of attacks on different locations on Friday in Ganye, including the prison, a police station, a bank and two taverns, state police spokesman Mohammed Ibrahim said.
“The gunmen used bombs, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in the attack on the prison, the police station, the bank and some beer parlours,” Ibrahim said.
Officials said they do not know how much money the gunmen took from the bank.
Although Ibrahim declined to say if the attackers were members of the Islamist Boko Haram sect, the raids resembled previous ones claimed by the group in parts of the north.
Criminal gangs are also known to have carried out similar attacks.
Violence linked to Boko Haram’s insurgency in northern and central Nigeria, including killings by security forces, has left some 3,000 people dead since 2009.