The Osun State Police Command yesterday said it had yet to receive any official communication regarding the escape of seven inmates from the Medium Security Custodial Centre in Ilesa, Osun.

The command’s spokesperson, DSP Abiodun Ojelabi, disclosed that the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) had not officially briefed or informed the state police command of the incident.

“We also heard about the escape, but the NCoS has not made an official report to the police. Our intel revealed to us that there was an escape. The cause of the escape is what we don’t know because our men have gone there. From the intelligence report we got, there is nothing we can lay hands on that made the inmates escape. The NCoS should inform us about what actually happened,” he said. Ojelabi added, “The police is out to protect life and property, and any criminal we see, we will apprehend.”

The NCoS declared seven inmates missing, attributing the escape to damage caused by rain to the security perimeter of the Medium Security Custodial Centre in Ilesa in the early hours of Tuesday.

Confirming the incident, the Controller-General of Corrections, Sylvester Ndidi Nwakuche, in a statement signed by Umar Abubakar, Deputy Controller of Corrections and Public Relations Officer, ordered an immediate investigation and assured the public that efforts were underway to return the escapees to custody.