By Ibironke Ariyo
The Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, says that there’s no case of jail attack in the last one year across the 256 custodial centres in Nigeria.
Tunji-Ojo said this while briefing pressmen on the 2024 achievements of the ministry and its six agencies on Tuesday in Abuja.
He, however, said that what the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) experienced were jail breaks in Suleja, Niger state and Maiduguri, Borno State respectively.
He also said that the jailbreaks which occured in the two custodial centres were as a result heavy downpour and flood in the two states respectively.
He added that Suleja custodial centre was affected by the rain, bringing down a part of the wall of the building.
According to him, inmates escaped in Maiduguri Custodial Centre because of the flood that affected part of the custodial centre.
“But in the last year, we’ve not had any attack nor any external aggression. The Nigeria Correctional Service has been proactive in terms of intelligence and security of custodial facilities.
“For instance, Suleja jail break happened because of rain and that’s also because of the old walls. And for Maiduguri, it was due to the flood and these are forces of nature.”
On other infrastructural improvements, the minister highlighted the ongoing renovation of decades-old correctional facilities and barracks in several states, including Sokoto, Kaduna, and Osun among others.
“We are presently constructing and rehabilitating our custodial centres, because a lot of our custodial centres are so old. I’ll give you an example.
“One was built in 1956, infact the one in Suleja, I think it was built in 1914 and the one in Nasarawa, I think it was built in the 1880s.
” So we have correctional centers that are 100 years old, 200 years old, 60 years old, 70 years old and many more, so, we need to intervene and as a responsible government, that’s what we’re doing,” he said.
Tunji-Ojo added that efforts to modernise facilities included the installation of CCTV surveillance systems in correctional centers, a move aimed at preventing security breaches such as jailbreaks.
“This is to ensure that what happened in Kuji years ago does not happen again, you know, and we have been able to do that.
“Real-time surveillance now allows us to monitor activities in these facilities and respond swiftly to threats,” he said.
