Gunshots as knife-wielding man attacks Kwara prison

There were gunshots in Oke-Kura area of Ilọrin, Kwara State capital, on Friday, when a yet-to-be identified man attacked a staff member of the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCS).

The incident, it was gathered, which occurred around past 8:00 am, caused panic and anxiety as residents scampered for safety.

Daily Trust reliably gathered that the man, believed to be mentally unstable, was coming from Ode Sarumi heading for Oja-Oba when he attacked a prison official simply identified as Kenny with a knife.

The victim was left with several deep cuts on his head and arms.

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The attacker, wearing a yellow hoodie, also destroyed several windscreens of tricycles and other vehicles with a heavy stone.

The windscreen of a prison vehicle used to transport inmates to the court which double-crossed him at the main road to prevent him from entering the market was also shattered in the process.

Speaking with our correspondent from his hospital bed, the official said he accosted the man to prevent a major disaster.

According to him, “The man destroyed the windscreen of one of our vehicles which double crossed him and that of tricycles and cars pursuing people with the knife. Everybody was running helter skelter. He passed the Oke-Kura correctional facility racing to the Oja-Oba market area and I boarded a bike and went after him.

“He was shouting ‘this is what the king said I should do, this is what the king said I should do’. But I heard the voice of a woman saying he ran outside the house when he was about to take his medicine. Some people said he is mentally unstable.

“If I hadn’t accosted him and allowed him to continue, he would have attacked people with the knife and the number of casualties would have only be imagined if he had entered the market. I shot in the air but he was not moved but I was determined to stop him even at the expense of my life as the service taught us.

“The man stabbed me in the hand, arm and deeply in the head and the impact damage the knife, but I summoned courage and wrestled him to the ground with my gun strapped to my body before by colleagues overpowered him and took him to the ‘C’ Division, Oja-Oba. I was stitched in the head and hand” he added.

Several calls and text message to the police public relations officer, Toun Ejire-Adeyemi, on the incident were not answered nor replied before the filing of this report.