The Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has said the continued imprisonment of people for minor offences is a major contributor to overcrowding in correctional facilities across Nigeria and other African countries.
ADVERTISE HERE:
[email protected]
Tunji-Ojo made the observation on Wednesday at the Regional Conference on the Classification of Prisoners and the Use of Technology in Prisons in Africa, held in Abuja.
The event was organised by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in partnership with the African Correctional Services Association.
He urged correctional administrators to reassess the composition of inmates in their facilities, insisting that many prisoners should not have been subjected to custodial sentences.
According to the minister, available records show that between 30 and 50 per cent of inmates are serving jail terms for offences that could have been addressed through non-custodial measures.
“Correctional managers need to ask themselves if the congestion they are experiencing is justified. When you scrutinise the records, you will find that many inmates are in custody for offences that do not require imprisonment,” he said.
Tunji-Ojo disclosed that state offenders account for about 93 per cent of Nigeria's prison population, while federal offenders make up the remaining seven per cent, adding that a considerable number of those held by states were convicted of minor offences.
He explained that upon assuming office, he directed the Nigerian Correctional Service to compile the records of inmates serving prison terms over fines or compensation of less than N500,000.
“I discovered that over 4,000 people were in correctional centres for such cases. The government was spending several times more feeding them than the actual fines involved. We resolved the issue, and our correctional facilities were immediately decongested by about five per cent,” the minister said.
He also noted that efforts to reform the correctional system had yielded positive results, with annual cases of repeat offending dropping from about 13,000 in 2023 to roughly 1,000 in the previous year.
The minister attributed the improvement to expanded rehabilitation programmes, including formal education, vocational training and academic opportunities for inmates through study centres established within correctional facilities.
In his remarks, the Controller-General of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Sylvester Nwakuche, said the implementation of the Nigerian Correctional Service Act, 2019, had strengthened prison reforms, particularly in inmate classification and rehabilitation.
Nwakuche added that proper classification of inmates enhances security, protects vulnerable prisoners and improves the delivery of rehabilitation programmes, while calling for greater cooperation among African correctional institutions to address shared challenges.
Post a Comment
Drop Your Comment In The Box Below