Following the expiration of the October 30, 2020 deadline handed down to 1,181 prisoners, who escaped from the Benin and Oko medium correctional centres to return, a source at one of the facilities has confirmed that 24 inmates have been brought back by their parents, lawyers and relations.

The Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, had ordered the return of the prisoners after thousands of hoodlums armed with AK-47 rifles and other weapons had under the guise of #EndSARS protest attacked the two correctional facilities in Benin and freed all the inmates.

The source disclosed that as of October 30, 2020, Oko correctional centre had received 24 of the inmates who were escorted back by their parents, lawyers and relations.

“We are expecting that more will return. Those we have received so far are inmates who have few months of their jail terms while the hardened and condemned inmates have yet to return. Majority of those out there are awaiting trials,” he stated.

Earlier, a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy to the Governor, Crusoe Osagie, had read, “The extension of the ultimatum is as a result of the positive response from the prisoners.”