Chronicle of prison break in Nigeria: Trend, dimension and implication

Abstract

The ‘ENDSARS” protest that was once peaceful turned violence with protesters releasing over 1000 inmates from the various prisons across the country. This is coming at a time the Nigerian government is facing challenges of corona virus on the economy and mental well being of the public and insecurity as a result of book haram, farmers/herdsmen conflict and kidnapping. This paper examined the trend and pattern of Prison breaks since the fourth republic in Nigeria with a view of knowing why they occur. It was revealed that happenings affecting the general population trickle down to the inmates in the prison and one of the ways of surviving these happenings is escaping from correctional facilities. Though studies have shown that there is a nexus between socioeconomic crisis and prison break; this paper argued that prison break in the country is a reflection of a combination of governance and socio-economic crisis plaguing the nation and correctional service and also inadequacies in the correction services act of 2019. The paper concluded that prison break is a function of governance crisis.