By Mustapha Jarju
The Gambia Prison Service officials under Ministry of Interior have announced launching manhunt operation for 8 prisoners who had escaped from Mile 2 on September 8, 2021.
The Public Relations Officer of the Gambia Prison Service, Superintendent Momodou Lamin Ceesay told The Voice exclusively that: “efforts are still ongoing to make sure we recapture the escaped prisoners.”
He added: “we are working with our sister services for support in the security especially the Anti-Crime Unit and we are hopeful to make headway as all of them are Gambians.”
According to him, only two of the escapees were charged with suspected murder while the four were on drug charges and two were charged with conspiracy to commit felony, saying the escapees didn’t serve long at the Prison. He added that some had their admission enforced in January 2021 and some in February this year.
He called on the public to support them with relevant information about the escapees, adding “we are currently reinforcing the metals at the ventilation holes in the Remind Wing which was two layers now making it three layers to avoid such happening in the long run.”
However, he blamed prisons warders on guard duty for the escape, adding they have launched an investigation into the case.
“If you see the scene you will know this was a gross negligence of the securities on the ground because this cannot happen in short period of time imagining how small is the hack saw and how brave those metals are. This were metals that were used since colonial days, in a nutshell it all mount to security elapse because as securities, night is very special which warrants inspecting the cells and doing everything possible to make sure everything is observe, in regard to that anything that amount to that is negligence,” he continued.