Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum this morning confirmed that two inmates managed to escape undetected from the New Amsterdam Prisons last night and remain on the loose.
The escapees were identified as Ravendra Samaroo and Lennox Patterson who are both incarcerated for robbery under arms.
Stabroek News was unable to speak to Prison Director Welton Troz who said that he was in a meeting.
Contacted Blanhum said that during the course of the day the Guyana Police Force will be issuing wanted bulletins for the escapees.
He said that the duo removed a 1×12 board from one of the walls of the prison, crawled through and subsequently jumped the prison fence and escaped. He said that the escape would have occurred sometime between 7 and 8 pm and it was noticed sometime during the course of the night.
How the prisoners managed to avoid detection will come in for heavy criticism particularly since prison wardens would have been on duty both in the compound and in buildings. Allegations of corruption have in the past been levelled against prison wardens at this prison. One such was that they supplied a gang with acid and cutlasses to launch a bloody attack on other inmates last May leaving several badly wounded.
Over the years, the prison system in general has been hit by breakouts and numerous allegations of corruption.