The Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) has trained and rehabilitated no fewer than 3,030 inmates on various skills across the 256 custodial centres in Nigeria between July and December 2024.
The Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja, during a media parley and interactive session with heads of the six agencies under the ministry.
Tunji-Ojo said that the inmates acquired skills in carpentry, tailoring, poultry, hairdressing, fishery, among others.
He also said that 50 other inmates’ were pursuing various academic programmes at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN).
“Correctional centers are now places of hope and transformation. This is to make sure that when people go in there does not mean it is the end of their lives, they can learn.
“People can go in there and go to schools, get certificates or get hands- on skills.
“So that when they leave the correctional centers, they can be useful to themselves, and will not see crime as the only option for survival.
“Over 50 inmates in our correctional centres are presently under various academic courses at the NOUN special study centers in our correctional.
“I’ll give you an example. I think there’s a boy in one of our centres that wrote about five books while in the correctional center.”
The minister said that the e- library in Kuje Custodial Centre has been functional for the inmates to patronise and equipped themselves with knowledge.
“This government is providing that platform to ensure that people that go in there come out better than the way they went into those places,” he said.
Speaking further, the minister said that over 5,000 offenders served the different non custodial sentences between January and December 2024.
“You see, the difference between the Nigerian Prison Service (NPS) and the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) is that prison is just a place of incarceration.
“While the Correctional Center is a place for correction, a place for transformation, and a place of hope.
” It’s a place where you give people, you train people, you make them better people so that when they go out, they can add value, and it’s impossible to do that if you do not rehabilitate them.”
Tunji-Ojo also announced that the federal government approved a 50 per cent increment in the daily feeding allocation for inmates.
“This demonstrates President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to improving the welfare of inmates and ensuring value for the allocated funds,” he stated.
The minister also revealed that NCoS had trained 4,996 officers between July and December 2024, with 2,053 currently undergoing training.
“It is unjust to expect officers to perform optimally without equipping them with the right skills,” he noted.
Tunji-Ojo also emphasised the integration of biometric data for inmates through a collaboration between the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
“This initiative aims to link all inmates to the national database, enhancing national security.
“No inmate will be left unregistered. This linkage is critical for tracking and monitoring,” he explained.(NAN)
