A storm during a heavy rainfall destroyed parts of the old Suleja custodial centre around 9 p.m., allowing many inmates to escape from the facility

Some inmates have escaped from the old Suleja Correctional Centre in Suleja Local Government Area of Niger State after a rainstorm destroyed parts of the facility Wednesday night.

Sources in Suleja said the storm during heavy rainfall destroyed parts of the custodial centre around 9 p.m., allowing many inmates to escape from the facility.

The rainstorm destroyed parts of the prison building and exposed the inner fence protecting one of the cells where inmates were kept.

A resident of Suleja town confirming the incident said: "We helped to arrest two of the inmates and handed them over to the prison authorities."

It was learnt that security agents have been deployed to blackspots in Suleja in search of the fleeing inmates.

Meanwhile, it was observed that security had been beefed up on the Minna-Suleja and Suleja-Kaduna roads, including the Madalla axis of the Minna-Abuja road.

The state's Comptroller of Prisons could not be immediately reached for his reaction, but a senior officer of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to journalists, confirmed the development.