Raphael Lawoe, one of the 7 arrested prison convicts who broke jail from the Sekondi prison about a month ago, has told a Sekondi High Court that the prisoners escaped because they were servered with watery soup and unpalatable meal in the prison yard. Mr. Lawoe who was serving a 60-year jail term for robbery pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit crime at the court presided over by Justice Robin Batu, when the 7 appeared before it on Thursday, May 27. The seven arrested jail-breakers who appeared in court were Mohammed Issa, Raphael Lawoe, Mahamadu Gariba, Jallo Ibrahim, Okorle Ebenezer Tatteh, Kweiku Abeiku and Gariba Amadu. They were all charged with escape from lawful custody and robbery. The seven were remanded into prison custody to reappear on June 2, 2010. Prosecuting, Patience Klinogo, Western Regional Chief State Attorney, said all the accused persons had been convicted for robbery, and were serving various terms of imprisonment at the Sekondi Central Prisons. She said on 2nd May 2010, the accused persons attacked prison officers on duty and locked them up in the main yard and reception. They then broke into the armory, took eight ‘G3’ weapons, started firing into the air, forced the main gate open and escaped with the rifles. When they got to the road in front of the prisons, the escapees stopped a mini bus with registration number WR 682A which was coming from Takoradi, at a gun point, shot the driver, Francis Nti in both thighs, and took the vehicle from him. The third and the sixth accused persons were recaptured at the precincts of the prisons, while the seventh accused person was rearrested at the inner gate. The prosecutor added that the remaining eight jail-breakers drove off in the mini bus with the eight rifles, and headed towards Ketan, near Sekondi. They however abandoned the bus somewhere along the road and hijacked a Ford saloon car with registration number WE 690 X which was being driven by one Mr. Towah. In their haste to escape in the saloon car, they collided with an oncoming taxi cab, but managed to run into the nearby bush with three of the weapons, leaving the rest in the car. According to the Regional State Attorney, the two vehicles had been retrieved and the driver of the mini bus was still at the hospital receiving treatment. She added that a combined team of the military, police and prisons officials, mounted a search for the escapees, and on 3rd May, 2010, the second and fifth persons were arrested at the Beposo toll both in an Accra-bound vehicle. The fourth accused person was also arrested in the bush the same day, while the first accused person was recaptured in the River Pra at Beposo on 5th May 2010. Source: Daily Guide