A Nigerian serving a 21-year sentence for kidnapping and GBH is still on the run more than five months after he absconded from an open prison.
Ola Abimbola, a Nigerian national, allegedly walked out of the open prison HMP Ford on October 10 and has not been seen since.
Abimbola had only been at the prison for around a month when new rules introduced by Labour to tackle overcrowding in more secure ‘closed’ jails meant he was transferred early.
The 36-year-old is currently serving a 21-year sentence for offences including kidnap, GBH and possession of an offensive weapon in public.
Open prisons have minimal security and allow eligible prisoners to spend most of their day out of prison on licence, for example to carry out work or education, to prepare them for reintegration into society.
Prisoners eligible for release to open conditions must meet certain conditions, including being at low risk of absconding.
Justice Secretary, David Lammy has come under fire in recent months over the mistaken release of prisoners across the country including foreign sex offenders Brahim Kaddour-Cherif and Hadush Kebatu, and British fraudster Billy Smith.
In the past year, the number of ‘high risk’ prisoners at HMP Ford has increased from 109 to 180, a report by the independent monitoring board revealed.
Ola Abimbola, a foreign national, escaped from open prison HMP Ford on October 10 and has not been seen since
Sussex Police released this CCTV image of Abimbola after he allegedly walked out of prison
The watchdog warned that the increase in higher-risk offenders was ‘altering the mix of prisoners’ and ‘could increase the risk or problems within the prison population.’
It said that while such problems had yet to materialise, it exposed weaknesses in the probation service, which has had to carry out extra checks on the ‘high-risk’ offenders before they can be allowed out of prison on licence.
‘Despite repeated assurances that probation would be properly funded and resourced, the problems remain systemic, causing significant delays in men getting release on temporary licence and putting additional pressure on the prison to provide purposeful activity in the meantime,’ said the monitoring board.
Sussex Police said officers had been working to find Abimbola but had yet to locate him, urging anyone who sees him to call 999 immediately.
The force has publicised its search on social media and advised the public not to approach him.
Abimbola, who is serving an extended determinate sentence, is understood to have been transferred to HMP Ford with at least five years to go in his 21-year sentence.
His earliest parole date is June 30, 2030, the Telegraph reports.
His conditional release date, when he could be released contingent on adhering to specific conditions, is still 11 years away, set for June 29, 2036.
Under the previous rules, to be transferred to an open prison, he would have had to be within three years of his first parole board date and five years of his conditional release date.
The problem of prisoners being accidentally released came into sharp focus last autumn when it emerged that HMP Wandsworth had wrongly freed a convicted sex offender as well as a fraudster.
Convicted fraudster William ‘Billy’ Smith, 35, was wrongly released but returned to the scandal-hit jail after a three-day manhunt.
The fugitive was filmed stepping out of a white van and returning to HMP Wandsworth, where he smoked a cigarette and smiled at TV crews before strolling back into the prison gates to begin his 45-month sentence.
His accidental release was confirmed just hours after a manhunt was launched for Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, who was at large since being mistakenly freed from the south London prison on October 29.
At the time of his release Kaddour-Cherif – who has been overstaying his visa in the UK since 2020 and he was convicted in 2024 for exposing himself in a London park – was supposed to be held in custody awaiting trial.
He was facing three live criminal cases and was under investigation for a fourth offence.
After being rearrested last November, he was last month sentenced to 26 weeks in prison for assaulting two police officers at Blackhorse Road Underground station, east London, on July 20 2025.
Official figures showed that in the year to March 2025, 262 inmates had been mistakenly let out – a 128 per cent increase on the 115 in the previous 12 months.
The Government responded to the crisis with promises to improve systems in prisons that deal with releases.
An independent review has been set up, led by Dame Lynne Owens, which is looking at release errors and improving transparency on release data.
Releases in error can include misplaced warrants for imprisonment or remand, sentence miscalculations or can be as a result of mistakes by courts or other authorities, according to the Ministry of Justice.
Fraudster William ‘Billy’ Smith, 35, smiled to cameras as he handed himself back into HMP Wandsworth
Brahim Kaddour-Cherif is pictured when being rearrested in November 2025 after he was accidentally released from prison
Kaddour-Cherif has since been sentenced to 26 weeks in prison for assaulting two police officers at Blackhorse Road Underground station, east London, on July 20 2025
Some 262 inmates were mistakenly let out in the year to March 2025 – a 128 per cent increase on the 115 in the previous 12 months, Government figures also show.
It follows earlier official data showing there were a record 262 releases in error in 2024-25, of which 87 were violent offenders and three had convictions for sexual offences.
And another 91 were freed in error from April 1 to October 31 last year, it was later revealed.
Mark Drury, a member of the Prison Governors’ Association, warned at the time 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 that we would not have considered suitable two or three years ago’.
