Why we may have more cell breaks in Bayelsa – CP

The Commissioner of Police in Bayelsa State, Mr. Asuquo Amba, has lamented the deplorable state of detention facilities available to the police in the state.

Amba, who spoke in a telephone interview on Friday while reacting to another attempted cell break at the police headquarters on Thursday, expressed the fear that there may be more of such incidents in future.

It would be recalled that on November 7, some suspects detained at the Special Anti-Robbery Squad facility in Yenagoa escaped.
The Police command had said that out of the 10 suspects that escaped, three were rearrested.

The Commissioner said that the Thursday incident occurred in broad daylight when the suspects were taking their bath.

He said that the suspects in the cell had overpowered the policeman who opened the burglary proof for them but unknown to them the outer gate in the facility was locked.

“It was a tense situation but the prompt alertness of other policemen around the area saved the situation, none of the suspects escaped but the fact of the matter is that we do not have proper detention facilities.

“It is a make shift arrangement, an office with burglary proof. We were lucky to avert this one but that does not mean that it will not happen again.

The suspects can still plan another one. We desperately need to build proper detention facilities to hold suspects.

“The makeshift facilities we have are overstretched and we have written to the state government as well as engaged the judiciary to quicken the dispensation of justice because it is the slow pace of prosecution that makes our facilities over crowded.

“The dearth of facilities here is hampering our efforts at policing the state,” Amba said.

Chris Eze, Yenagoa