Nigerian man serving 21-years for kidnapping in UK escapes from prison

Saturday, November 8, 2025 - A Nigerian man serving 21 years for kidnapping has escaped from prison, with police unable to locate him for almost a month.

According to Mail Online, Ola Abimbola, a foreign national, walked out of the open prison HMP Ford on October 16 and has not been seen since.

The 36-year-old is currently serving a 21-year sentence for offences including kidnap, Grievous bodily harm, and possession of an offensive weapon in public.

Sussex Police released this CCTV image of Abimbola last month after he allegedly walked out of prison

He is yet to return to the prison, with Sussex Police saying it is working with partners to find him

Abimbola is the second foreign national known to be on the run from police, with Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, still at large since he was mistakenly freed from HMP Wandsworth on October 29.

Another Wandsworth prisoner, William 'Billy' Smith, 35, was also wrongly set free on Monday but handed himself into the scandal-hit jail on Thursday. 

Mark Drury, a member of the Prison Governors' Association, warned there had been a 'sudden' rise in absconders from open prisons in recent years, adding that there is an 'increased risk to the public'. 

He explained that, due to attempts to tackle prison overcrowding, 'there are a large number of prisoners in open prisons now we would not have considered suitable two or three years ago'. 

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday that he was 'angry and frustrated' by 'intolerable' wrongful prisoner releases, although he defended his Justice Secretary David Lammy.

Mr Lammy repeatedly refused to confirm at PMQs on Wednesday, when he was standing in for Sir Keir, whether any more asylum seekers had been wrongly released since Hadush Kebatu, the now-deported migrant at the heart of protests in Epping, Essex. 

He told reporters on Thursday he was 'not equipped with all the detail' about Kaddour-Cherif's release when he appeared in the Commons.

'We have found out that the release that has caused concern this week, was actually before I introduced those checks just a few weeks ago following the release of Kebatu, and the other prisoner was a court mistake not, in fact, a prison mistake,' Mr Lammy added.