/ 18 February 2001

NIGERIA POLICE PUT DOWN PRISON UPRISING

SOME 300 Nigerian prison inmates seized control of their jail, disarming the warders and staging a protest at bad conditions before police quelled the unrest. Police said they had foiled a jailbreak bid in in the state capital, Akwa, in the southeast of the country. Nigerian prisons are notorious for overcrowding and poor feeding and health facilities, leading to the deaths of scores of inmates annually. Several organisations in Nigeria have been campaigning for prison reforms. – AFP