Charles Okah, a brother of Henry Okah, jailed leader of the defunct Movement For the Emancipation of Niger Delta, MEND, has escaped from Kuje Prison in Abuja.

Signal, reports that a prison inmate informed the online newspaper that Mr. Okah escaped Friday, June 24, 2016, night by simply scaling the prison walls of the prison around 7:45pm Nigerian time.

Okah was reportedly in the company on another prison inmate. Both prisoners scaled the walls of the Kuje prison fence.

The prison inmate, who did not want to be named, said there are strong indications Okah escaped with outside help, capitalizing on security lapses during Muslim prayers which were happening at about that time.

“Someone threw a rope over the fence from the other side. That was how they escaped,” the inmate said.

Okah had been on trial in Abuja for the 2010 Independence Day bombing that killed 27 people.

Security agencies have been put on alert with a massive manhunt in progress to find and re-arrest him.