FG to audit correctional centres to improve conditions for detainees, staff
Minister of Interior, Mr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo
From Cyril Mbah, Abuja.
The Federal Government intends to conduct a thorough audit of the nation's correctional centres and security detention cells with a view to improv the living conditions of detainees and boosting the welfare of security personnel manning the centres.
Minister of Interior, Mr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo who disclosed this while briefing newsmen after an on-the-spot tour and assessment of Kuje Medium Correctional Centre on Wednesday evening also stated that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has given marching orders to the ministry to ensure that the security and the living standards of inmates in correctional and other detention centres as well as the work conditions of security personnel at such facilities were drastically improved to prevent future jail breaks.
The minister, who came into the detention centre at about 5 pm in a long convoy of vehicles, escorted by heads of agencies under his ministry and spent about thirty minutes going around and interacting with inmates, including high-profile detainees stressed that no Nigerians deserved to be detained in very unfavourable conditions.
He said "We are here for on-the-spot assessment of the conditions in our detention centre in Kuje and we would go round the others in various parts of the country to look at what we have there and see areas that need improvement.
"We would do a thorough audit of the centres to ensure that our inmates and the staff looking after them have a good environment to stay. We would not stop in Kuje alone as we intend to also visit other centres for the same purpose," he said.
Asked about the blueprint for the expected prison reforms, Tunji-ojo said President Tinubu believes that Nigerian detainees are treated fairly and that the hopes and aspirations of detainees are kept alive even as they serve out their terms even as he declared that the reform blueprint would be studied closely.
On what is being done to ensure the recapture of about 2000 escaped prisoners, the minister said "The president has given us a matching order to do everything possible to ensure that, working with other sister security agencies, we improve the security of correctional centres to prevent further jailbreaks."
Tunji-Ojo also visited the Nigerian Immigration Services (NIS) and the headquarters of the Nigerian Correctional Centre located at Sauka along the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport before coming to Kuje.