Port Harcourt Prisons.
Photo: Guardian newspaper

Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt

Daring gunmen made a botched  attack on Port Harcourt Prisons in the Rivers State Capital today.

The attack ostensibly meant to free inmates was thwarted by alert security men. The number of casualties s yet unknown.

Heavy gunfire was reported around  the prisons in the early hours of Tuesday, the same day armed men killed two guards at the Rivers High Court complex.

The gunmen had launched the  attack on the prisons from Bundu Waterside in the Town axis of Port Harcourt. The  Prison is located near Bundu Waterfront.

Both the  Controller and Deputy Controller of the  prisons were unreachable at the time of this report. But the security around the prisons perimetre has been tightened.

Earlier today, the High Court Complex was attacked by gunmen and two Securitymen were killed.

Two other persons were critically  injured.

The High Court Complex is a whispering distance from the Rivers Command Police Headquarters along Moscow Road,Port Harcourt.

It was  not clear whether the two attacks were connected.

Security sources  said  the attacks could be connected with  the proposed arraignment of three suspects standing trial over the alleged killing of a Niger-Delta warlord, Soboma George six years ago.

Rivers state Commissioner of Police, Musa Kimo, who visited the scene of the killings, said, “the action is regrettable but we assure our Judiciary workers of their safety and we will ensure that the perpetrators of this act will be found.”

Security has now been beefed-up in and around the court premises and the area has been cordoned off.

In August 2011 there was a jail break in the city where many inmates escaped.  Twenty five of them were re-arrested.

In 2005, there was a similar jail break led by the late Soboma George, a former militant leader and senior Commander of now defunct Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta,MEND, that led to the death of several prisoners.

It not clear if the late Soboma  George group made the failed jail break today.

Similarly heavy security has also been beefed up at Port Harcourt Prisons.