Aregbesola: Why Criminals May Attempt Jailbreak

• Gives Marching Order On Protection Of Custodial Facilities

By Sodiq Yusuf

THE Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has called on the new Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Haliru Nababa, to forestall future attacks on custodial facilities across the country.

Aregbesola, who charged Nababa to ensure strict protection of all the nation’s custodial facilities, noted that custodial centres have been under consistent attacks in recent times.

He lamented that when inmates break free from custody, the security of lives and property is in jeopardy and bad things happen.

The minister, according to a press statement by the Director of Press in the Ministry, Blessing Lere-Adams, stated this on Monday in his office in Abuja, while decorating Nababa as the new CG of NCS.

Aregbesola explained that criminals might attempt jailbreak because some of the inmates belong to organisations which members will be planning to break in to the custodial centres to free the prisoners.

Charging Nababa, the former Governor of the State of Osun said: “Interestingly, you are mounting the saddle at a time of unusual security challenges.

“These are manifested in insurgency in the North-East, banditry in the North-West and parts of North-Central, kidnappings in virtually all parts of the country, financial crimes and ritual killings in the South-West, militancy that is assuming an insurrectional dimension in the South-East and South-South and sundry other criminal activities in all parts of the country.

“The implication of this is that the custodial facilities will be bursting at the seams with the influx of inmates awaiting trials or convicts serving terms and awaiting execution.

“This poses a special challenge due to the fact that some of these inmates belong to organisations that will deem themselves to be fighting ethno-religious and political causes. Therefore, their members outside will be planning jailbreak into the facilities to free their members.”

The Minister, who noted that whatever may be the motive, custodial centres have been under consistent attacks in a brazen challenge to the authority of the Nigerian state, added that when inmates break free from custody, the security of lives and property is in jeopardy and bad things happen.

“This is the sociology of your emergence as the Comptroller-General. It is a call to leadership, sacrifice, patriotism and selflessness,” he reiterated.

Aregbesola further charged Nababa to keep focus on the core mandate of correction. The minister stressed the need for inmates to be kept healthy and safe from harm and from harming others.

He added that inmates must be reasonably fed and their health well taken care of.

“Their dignity should be well respected and they should be protected from abuse of any form – physical, sexual, verbal and psychological.

“They should leave the facilities on completion of their terms feeling well-treated and their dignity as God’s creature restored. They should feel grateful for being handled by firm but kind and compassionate officers,” the Minister emphasised.

In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Dr. Shuaib Belgore, told Nababa to see his appointment as a position of trust and given the current security challenges confronting the nation at the moment, he should work in collaboration with other security agencies in the country to ensure that all the correctional facilities are protected.

In his response, Nababa promised his commitment to boosting the morale of officers and men of the service as well as working to justify the confidence reposed on him by Mr. President.