Edo: Police re-arrest prisoner who escaped from jail during #EndSARS protest

The Edo State Police Command has re-arrested a 58-year-old prisoner, Jacob Alonge, who escaped from the Benin Correctional Centre during the 2020 #EndSARS protest in the state.

DAILY POST reports that the Commissioner of Police, CP Funsho Adegboye, disclosed this to newsmen in Benin City.

Adegboye said the inmate was sentenced to 21 years imprisonment by the Edo High Court for raping his own daughter, Gift Alonge.

According to him, “While the case is ongoing in court, he threatened that the case would have no end and true to his threat, his daughter and others who were coming to testify in court died mysteriously but he was convicted.

“After escaping from the prison during the 2020 #EndSARS protest, he was not re-arrested, but nemesis has caught up with him and he has been re-arrested and would be taken to where he belong.”

Adegboye, who described the convict as a dangerous human being, added that he is not fit to live with human beings.

He said the convict, who was serving a jail term, escaped during the #EndSARS jail break in the two custodial centres in Benin.

According to him, the police got credible intelligence that the convict, a serial rapist, was sighted at Ososo community in Akoko-Edo local government of the state.

The CP disclosed that
the operatives of the Command stormed the community to arrest the inmate but some unscrupulous elements in community resisted his arrest.

He said the operatives overpowered those that resisted the arrest of the convict, following which he was re-arrested and brought to the Command.

The commissioner, however, appealed to members of the community not shield criminals because they may be their victims tomorrow, noting that criminal don’t have permanent friends.

In an interview with newsmen, the convict said he escaped because everyone was escaping after the prison was forced open during the #EndSARS protest.

“I escaped to my village. I was called that police are in my house and are looking for me, so I went to meet them and I was arrested,” he stated.