An incident of prison break occurred at the Monrovia Central Prison, with several inmates escaping, CEOAFRICA news desk reports

Although, an eyewitness puts the number of inmates that escaped at 12, the Ministry of Justice however reported that eight inmates, out of eleven who broke the jail escaped.

Confirming the incident, the Press and Public Affairs Officer to the Ministry of Justice, Ms. Maude M. Somah said a call came through the Assistant Minister for Rehabilitation, Mr. Hilary S. Sirleaf at around 3.45 am, that inmates from Block FD, Room 6-where 11 alleged armed Robbers were detained-had escaped.

“I was also told by correction officers on duty that the inmates used a saw to remove the iron bars from the window of their room and wrapped themselves in their blankets in order not to get cut from the barbed wire,” she said.

The UNMIL along with prison officers were able to apprehend an escapee, CEOAFRICA further gathered.

But, many residents of the area are of the opinion that that the inmates did not break jail, but were let out by those in charge of the prison compound-naming this incident as the third time an alleged prison break is taken place. While trying to confirm whether the allegation of letting out prison guards was true, Somah said “One would wonder how did a saw enter the prison compound when visitors, including journalists are searched and stopped from entering the compound with cell phones, cameras and recorders. To every rule, there is an exception, so we considered pregnant women and old people to enter without being searched. But now, I don’t think we can afford to trust anybody again,” she said.

Furthermore, she said, “Whoever knew that these inmates would have wrapped themselves up in blankets to go through the barb wires? Do you think we would stop sharing blankets among them because of what happened? No. Because in the midst of all this, they still need blankets to use for cold. It is better to have well and strong inmates than sick ones,” she concluded.

It would be recalled that a similar incident happened in 2009, when approximately 250 inmates from the Armed Robbers unit broke jail and police were able to apprehend only 50, while the remaining 200 are yet to be found up till now. In October 2012, twenty inmates from the Zwedru Central Prison in Grand Gedeh County broke jail but were apprehended, with two killed in an intense gun battle with officers of the LNP’s Emergency Response Unit.