Nigerian actress who escaped from prison after death sentence recaptured

Rabi Ismail, a Nigerian actress who escaped from prison about six years ago, after being sentenced to death has been recaptured.

The actress escaped from lawful custody in Hadejia Prison on December 16, 2011.

According to the spokesperson for the Prisons authorities, Francis Enobore, Ismail was recaptured by the Intelligence Unit of the Nigerian Prisons Service with the support of men of the State Security Service.

The prisoner bearing number k/22c Rabi Ismail was sentenced to death by hanging for culpable homicide by a High Court in Kano on January 5, 2005 for killing her boyfriend, Auwalu Ibrahim, to acquire his property.

Ismail was subsequently held in Kaduna Central prison from where she was transferred to Hadejia prison before she escaped six years ago.

In July 2011, the Supreme Court upheld the sentence of the lower courts that sentenced her to death by hanging.

The court found her guilty for drugging and drowning Ibrahim in 2002 in Kano. Rabi who was 39 years old when she escaped six years ago, had lured Ibrahim to a picnic at Tiga Dam, where she poisoned him with chocolate and pushed him into the dam.

The Controller General of Prisons expressed appreciation to the assistance rendered by security agencies particularly the SSS and the police in arresting the fugitive.

He appealed to members of the public to continue to provide useful information on escapees and indeed any criminal element in their midst to security agents, noting that such outlaws pose security threats to the society.