The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, says about 67 per cent of inmates in correctional facilities across the country are awaiting trial.
Tunji-Ojo, who spoke on Politics Today, a Channels Television current affairs programme, on Thursday, said there was an urgent need for stronger collaboration between the Federal Government and states to improve the country’s correctional services.
According to him, while states are legally entitled to operate their own correctional centres, the burden of managing inmates — most of whom are state offenders — currently falls on the Federal Government.
“We can work out a synergy. States that want to have their own correctional centres, by law, they’re entitled to have it, and the federal too. But we must also understand that about 72 per cent of our inmates are state offenders and about 67 per cent or so are awaiting trial,” he said.
“So it means two-thirds are state offenders, but the Federal Government is the one taking responsibility now. I don’t like to shift blame. As Mr. President will always say, ‘We were elected to produce results, not to make excuses.’ We will interface with our governors and come together to have a shared strategy towards solving these correctional problems.”
The minister also recalled that in July, the Federal Government freed 4,550 offenders after a review targeting inmates held for minor, bailable offences and those with prolonged incarceration, as part of efforts to decongest correctional centres.
He noted that the administration of President Bola Tinubu was determined to reposition the correctional system despite the poor state in which it was inherited in 2023.
“But I need to put it on record that this particular administration has done a lot in the last two years in terms of putting resources and trying to make sure that we fix our correctional centres,” he added.
