Gunmen hit Nigeria prison, free inmates

A spokesman says gunmen have attacked a federal prison in Nigeria, freeing inmates during a gun battle in an attack similar to one carried out in 2010 by a radical Islamist sect.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

A spokesman says gunmen have attacked a federal prison in Nigeria, freeing inmates during a gun battle in an attack similar to one carried out in 2010 by a radical Islamist sect.Nigeria Prisons Service spokesman Kayode Odeyemi told The Associated Press on Thursday the attack occurred in Koton-Karifi, a town in Kogi state just south of the nation’s central capital of Abuja. Odeyemi said gunmen attacked the prison Wednesday night.Odeyemi had no other details about the attack, though it appeared all the prisoners there fled.The attack comes after a sect known as Boko Haram launched a massive prison break in Bauchi state in September 2010 that freed about 700 inmates there. No one has claimed responsibility yet for Wednesday’s attack.