An inmate at the Ikoyi Prison, Lagos, has lost close to N400,000 to corrupt warders at the supposed correctional centre, FIJ can report.

On Friday, very early in the morning, prison warders had gone to Block A4 in search of large samples of Indian hemp reported to have been imported into the prison. During the search, they found an inmate with N377,600, and took it, never to return it to him or officially register it.

By prison regulations, an inmate should not hold cash of that size, and should have registered it with the records office, only to collect in bits and pieces after telling record officials the purpose to which the money would be put, and securing clearance from them.

However, FIJ’s long-term Ikoyi Prison sources, said the inmate held on to the money this time because a similar amount of money with the records office in 2020 ended up in a loss for the inmate.

“Before the riot on October 22, 2020, he had some money, again very close to N400,000, with the records office,” one source, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution, said.

“But after the riot, they could not account for a dime; they said the money got burnt. Suddenly, the warders are now wondering how or why that huge amount of money got into his hands.”

Last week’s Ikoyi ‘prison break’ was not a premeditated jailbreak. It was prompted by corruption, exacerbated by pent-up tension among images over the burning of the Igbosere court and sealed by inmates’ desperation to escape from the chaos they’d caused.

A thread.

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— ‘Fisayo Soyombo (@fisayosoyombo) October 31, 2020

FIJ also understands that the prison did not punish the inmates who smuggled the hemp into the prison.

“The prison authorities heard that 12 large sizes of Indian hemp were brought in, and they found them,” said a second source.

“Those who did it are still walking freely in the yard, but the person whose money was taken was not in possession of hemp. So why did they seize his money without giving him back? That’s stealing.”

FIJ made efforts to be connected to the inmate in question, but our sources declined to, maintaining the authorities would find him out if we spoke with him, and would go on to punish him.

In addition to letting the hemp-smoking inmates go scot-free, no warder was punished, even though FIJ knows, from this 2019 undercover investigation, that no banned material can find its way to the prison without the connivance of warders.

FIJ attempted to reach the Nigerian Correctional Service via the phone number listed on its official Facebook page, for comments, but the network instruction was: “the number dialed is not valid”.