It’s been nine days since the Haitian-Bahamian prisoner “walked out of the prison yard.”
Officer-in-charge of the Eastern Police Station Assistant Superintendent Sidney McPhee said that as police teams continue to search for the lone prison escapee they will keep a close eye on the tiny squatter villages that sometimes act as hideouts for illegal immigrants wanting to stay under the police radar.
“We know that there is a large Haitian population here and he could easily integrate into that population,” ASP McPhee said.
“We also have not ruled out the other islands but we’re mainly looking at those villages here in New Providence and Grand Bahama because if he’s on the run he will go anywhere that will accept him.”
But ASP McPhee added that the police force could never be comfortable knowing that The Bahamas is also faced with a swelling immigration problem in other Family Islands namely, Eleuthera, Exuma, Abaco and Andros.
Cilice, 21, was part of the prison’s work detail programme and was working in the compound of the prison chaplain’s residence last Tuesday when a routine roll call exposed his disappearance. Cilice was sentenced to Her Majesty’s Prison on November 21, 2003 to serve a three-year prison sentence for fraud and was scheduled to be released on October 13, 2007.
ASP McPhee noted that reports have been pouring into police stations that Cilice has some connection to the United States and could possibly be hiding there.
The officer also noted that the other prisoners in the work programme are continuously being questioned about Cilice’s disappearance but he admitted that the inmates are being tight-lipped about the matter.
“They’re all criminals so whose to say that they will give us any information,” ASP McPhee said. “All of them said they weren’t around when he left but we’re taking that with a grain of salt.”
By: IANTHIA SMITH, The Nassau Guardian
