The sheriff or his deputy while conveying the defendant to the proper prison in execution of a judgment of imprisonment has the same authority to require the assistance of any citizen of this state in securing the defendant and in retaking him if he escape, as if the sheriff were in his own county, and every person who refuses or neglects to assist the sheriff, when so required, is punishable as if the sheriff were in his own county.
Okla. Stat. tit. 22, § 981