Nigerian fraudster, Ramon Olorunwa Abbas aka Hushpuppi who is currently being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago has alongside other inmates cried out for help over Coronavirus at the facility.
Hushpuppi who was arrested in Dubai in June, and extradited to the United States of America, appeared in court last Thursday.
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He was charged with running a global fraud operation, including targeting a Premier League football club, a bank and a US law firm.
KOKO TV yesterday exclusively confirmed that Hushpuppi is rubbing shoulders with American singer, R. Kelly who is locked up at the same facility.
We can also now confirm that Hushpuppi who is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago alongside other inmates are worried about the outbreak of Coronavirus at the detention facility.
The US Bureau of Prisons said there are currently 18 confirmed active COVID-19 cases among inmates and 14 among jail staff; while 122 inmates and 16 staff have recovered from the virus.
Coronavirus at Chicago Metropolitan Correctional Center
Since the Chicago Metropolitan Correctional Center reported its first positive test of an inmate for coronavirus, the outbreak among detainees there has grown into one of the largest among Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities, records show.
There have been no reported deaths, and the MCC’s numbers are still dwarfed by the hundreds reported by BOP facilities in California and Texas.
Some months ago US federal prison officials reported that over tens of inmates at Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center had tested positive for the coronavirus.
The number of infected detainees at the downtown high-rise jail had dropped to just 11, according to the official tally from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
Coronavirus Amongst Inmates
US prosecutors had in a recent court filing that about 5% of the population of the roughly 650 inmates at the MCC had tested positive for COVID-19, representing about 5% of the population. In addition, 23 staff members were infected, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said their numbers were based on information received directly from MCC officials. Most of the infected inmates were quarantined in their cells, but at least one inmate has been hospitalized and would not return to the facility until medically cleared to do so, prosecutors said.
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“Clearly, the numbers on the BOP website cannot be trusted,” said John Murphy, the executive director of the Federal Defender Program in Chicago.
“The virus is in that building, and it’s such a tight fit for everyone,” Murphy said. “You’ve got staff members moving between floors … There really is no way to meaningfully separate healthy people from sick people.”
Respected defense attorney, Ellen Domph, recently complained in a filing that “there is no mass testing at the MCC” and alleged a client of hers had been placed in a cell with an infected inmate who was supposed to be in quarantine.
No Prisoner Release Despite Coronavirus
US Prosecutors have largely opposed the release of prisoners due to COVID-19, saying strict protocols are in place to contain the situation, from increased sanitation and protective gear to a ban on visitors and a near-total lockdown of inmates in their cells.
The prisons bureau recently announced that it was expanding testing around its system on asymptomatic inmates, since it’s now understood the virus can be quietly spread by an infected person who is not showing symptoms.
Steve Greenberg, who has made repeated attempts to get his most famous client, singer R. Kelly, released on home detention while awaiting trial for sexual abuse-related charges, said the BOP is refusing to acknowledge the ongoing crisis.
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Greenberg said: “The fact is that in a jail environment, everything about it is the antithesis of what you have to do to stop this virus from spreading.”
“Inmates are reportedly banging on doors, walls, and windows begging for help,” Kelly’s attorney, Michael Leonard, stated in one motion.
The US Bureau of Prisons has 130,770 federal inmates in BOP-managed institutions and 13,455 in community-based facilities. The BOP staff complement is approximately 36,000. There are 1,992 federal inmates and 160 BOP staff who have confirmed positive test results for COVID-19 nationwide. Currently, 5,137 inmates and 603 staff have recovered. There have been 94 federal inmate deaths and 1 BOP staff member death attributed to COVID-19 disease.
Photo Credit: Getty
