The Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has disclosed that 93 percent of inmates in Nigerian correctional centres are state offenders, while only 7 percent are held for federal offences.
The minister also said a significant number of inmates do not require incarceration, as many are serving sentences for minor offences that could have been handled through alternative measures.
Speaking on Wednesday, July 15, at the Regional Conference on the Classification of Prisoners and the Use of Technology in Prisons in Africa, organised jointly by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the African Correctional Services Association, Tunji-Ojo said the Federal Government had taken deliberate steps to decongest correctional facilities by addressing cases involving minor offences.
“93% of our inmates in Nigeria are state offenders. Only 7% are federal offenders. And of this 93%, I want to tell you, before this president came on board, a lot of them were for minor offences that had no need for incarceration,” the minister said.
Tunji-Ojo recalled that shortly after assuming office, he ordered an audit of inmates detained over unpaid fines and compensation-related judgments.
“When I became minister, I called my permanent secretary, I called the Controller General of the Correctional Service, and I said, listen, give me the data, the record of people who are in correctional centres for fines and compensation of less than 500,000 or something. And guess what? Over 4,000 people,” he said.
According to him, the review revealed that keeping such inmates in custody cost the government far more than the financial obligations that led to their imprisonment.
“I said, what is the sense in this? Because I feed them in a year with more than 10 times of the fine. So how is the government benefiting? And we were able to clear that, and in one day, we decongested our correctional centre by 5% in one day. In one day,” he said.
The minister said the development raised a broader question about whether overcrowding in correctional facilities was justified.
“The question is this. Is your correctional centre rightfully overcrowded? That is the question. You have to look at those particular offences. You will realise that more than 30, 40, 50 percent are offences that do not warrant incarceration,” he said.
Tunji-Ojo also said recidivism in Nigeria’s correctional centres had declined significantly under the current administration, from about 13,000 cases annually in 2023 to 1,000 last year. He attributed the reduction to increased access to education, skills acquisition, and rehabilitation programmes for inmates.
He disclosed that 62 inmates are currently enrolled in postgraduate programmes, 261 are pursuing undergraduate studies, while 1,125 are receiving formal education. He added that 18 National Open University study centres operate within correctional facilities, with 9,582 inmates participating in vocational and non-formal rehabilitation programmes.
The minister further stated that Nigeria had gone three years without recording a jailbreak or attack on any correctional facility, attributing the achievement to improved data management and stronger collaboration among security agencies.
He cited the case of an escaped inmate who was rearrested while attempting to obtain a Nigerian passport after biometric data linked across security agencies flagged his identity.
“Immediately he put his finger at the level of Nigeria Immigration Service to procure a passport, Immigration saw it immediately that he was an inmate. And immediately they reached out to correctional service and he was arrested right there,” he said.
The Controller General of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Sylvester Ndidi Nwakuche, said the country had continued to modernise its correctional system through reforms driven by the Nigerian Correctional Service Act, 2019.
Nwakuche said effective prisoner classification had become a critical tool for assessing inmates’ risks, protecting vulnerable prisoners, improving resource allocation, and delivering targeted rehabilitation programmes.
He added that the integration of technology into correctional administration would improve record management, strengthen information sharing, and promote greater institutional accountability.
“No single correctional service possesses all the solutions to today’s security and rehabilitation challenges,” he said, adding that the conference provided an opportunity for African correctional authorities to exchange ideas, share experiences, and develop strategies for strengthening correctional systems across the continent.
