There was a tense moment at the Old Jeshwang Prison yesterday evening when a handful of inmates caused a commotion that nearly generated into a riot.
An eyewitness who saw the scene reported a large presence of PIU officials in riot gears. Some reports even said there was gun fire apparently to get the disgruntled prisoners to calm down.
The Standard investigative team visited the prisons where the head of the prisons Lamin Sowe confirmed that a few disgruntled inmates protested that they should be given a presidential pardon. “This was an old protest but yesterday people from OP visited us here just to see which areas need improvement in the condition of the prisons and the inmates used that visit to agitate for a pardon.
We told them that we are not the authority for such pardons but a few of them continued to press for that,” said Sowe. He said the matter was amicably handled and the few inmates responsible had to be transferred to Mile 11.Sowe admitted that one prisoner, a Gambian escaped in the confusion but the matter has been resolved.
