Two armed robbery convicts and 11 awaiting trial suspects were among the 13 inmates who escaped from Koton Karfe prison in Kogi in the early hours of Saturday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) learnt that the inmates in one of the cells in the prison dug a big hole in the wall of their cell to aid their escape.
An authoritative source at the prison told NAN correspondent on Sunday that armed and conventional squads of the Nigeria Prison Service had launched manhunt to re-arrest the fleeing inmates.
The source added that the prison authority had also contacted the police to assist it in tracking down the inmates some of who are facing trial for capital offences.
The 180-capacity all male prison facility inaugurated in 2014 had a population of 263 inmates as at the time of the latest jailbreak.
Some residents of Koton Karfe who spoke to NAN expressed shock at the incident.
They insisted that the inmates could not have dug a big hole in the concrete wall of their cell without being aided and abetted.
The state Controller of prison, Mr Musa Maza, has been avoiding the media since the incident by ignoring phone calls made to him. (NAN)