The Federal Government on Monday decorated Mr Haliru Nababa, as the new Controller General of the Nigerian Correctional Service with a charge to ensure protection and welfare of inmates in various custodial facilities across the country.
Minister of Interior, Ọgbẹni Rauf Aregbesola, who decorated the CG with his new rank in Abuja, reminded him that he was assuming the leadership of the Nigerian Correctional Service at a time of unusual security challenges.
“These are manifested in the 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,” he said.
He said the implication of this was that the custodial facilities would be bursting at the seams with the influx of inmates awaiting trials or convicts serving terms and awaiting execution.
Arẹgbẹsọla said, “This poses a special challenge in that some of the inmates belong to organisations that will deem themselves to be fighting ethnoreligious and political causes.
“Therefore, their members’ outsides will be planning to break into the facilities to free their members.
“There are also sophisticated criminal organisations whose members are either serving terms or awaiting trials and are now using the security situation in the country as an opportunity to attack our custodial centres and obtain their freedom.
“Whatever may be the motive, custodial centres have been under consistent attacks in a brazen challenge to the authority of the Nigerian state.
“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 Controller General. It is a call to leadership, sacrifice, patriotism and selflessness,” he said.
The Minister challenged the new CG to lead the gallant officers of the service to protect the integrity of the facilities, using all means necessary.
“No one attacking our facilities should have the opportunity to regret his or her activity. Others should do so on their behalf,” he said.
He also tasked the NCoS boss to ensure that a few bad eggs within the Service that smuggle prohibited items to inmates, assist them in running criminal operations while in custody, take them out to unapproved places and locations and wittingly or unwittingly facilitate jailbreak for them, should be fished out and prosecuted.
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