12 suspects were on the run in Ghana’s capital Accra on Sunday after they escaped from jail in a violent breakout that left a police sergeant with bruises.
The mass cell break occurred at about 6:40 a.m. at the Zenu-Atadeka police station located in the Kpone-Katamanso Municipality.
According to a police statement, the officer was attacked when he opened the cell doors to place one of the suspects behind bars.
The statement said one of the inmates suddenly poured hot porridge over his face while the remaining pushed the iron gate opened and escaped.
The remand prisoners are being investigated for various offences including robbery and stealing.
They have been named as Basit Sulemana, Richard Remeo, Ibrahim Adams, Sulemana Karim, Musah Ali and Musah Ibrahim.
The rest are Sulemana Ibrahim, Abu Sadiq, Mubarak Seiti, Ibrahim Fuseini, Aziz Fuseini and Amish Akorli.
The police however said in the statement that suspect Ibrahim Adams was re-arrested at his hideout at Kubekro No. 2.
A serious manhunt has been launched to recapture the remaining fugitives. The Greater Accra Regional Police Command has been notified of the development, a police source told dailymailgh.com.
Security experts have on various forums expressed concern about the state of Ghana’s police stations when a similar incident occurred at the Kwabenya Police Station in Accra in January 2018.
The event was staged by six heavily armed men who shot and killed an on-duty officer Inspector Emmanuel Ashilevi in cold blood.
But Dr Kwesi Aning with the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center (KAIPTC) warned of such attacks in the future should the government not adopt modern security strategies.
“This is the time to say how do we get a wider stakeholder forum to get a national security policy that is fit and to be able to respond so that we all become safe and secured,” Dr Aning said.
