Unknown gunmen invaded the Owerri High court situated along Orlu Road, Owerri, setting free their member, a known kidnapper, Henry Chibueze, a.k.a, Vampire.
The suspect and others had been brought into the court for their suits on kidnapping and other criminal charges to be heard, before the incident took place.
In a swift reaction, Governor Rochas Okorocha has promise the sum of N5million for any information on the whereabouts of Chibueze. The governor disclosed this after an emergency meeting with security chiefs in the state at the Government House, Owerri.
It was gathered that no such incident had happened in the state before, even during the notorious case of Otokoto, before the culprits were sentenced to death.
According to eyewitnesses, shortly after Chibueze, who had been under the custody of the prisons in Owerri, and about 50 other inmates were carried in a Black Maria into the court, some hoodlums, numbering six, armed with sophisticated arms and weapons, invaded the court premises, shooting sporadically in the air and exchanging gunfire with security operatives. As people were scampering to safety, the gunmen escaped with the notorious criminal.
The Public Relations Officer (PRO), of the Nigerian Prisons Service, Imo State Command, Maduba James, disclosed that the suspect was presently at large, adding that only six people were critically injured.
He said security operatives were on top of the situation to ensure that there was no breakdown of law and order in the state.Okorocha said it was so sad that such incident could happen, adding that the disappearance of Vampire from the prison custody poses a lot of security threat to the society.
