The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo has said the Federal Government has commenced the audit of inmates across the 256 Custodial Centres in the country.
This according to him was part of measures to decongest the facilities.
A statement on Friday by the Minister’s Media Assistant, Alao Babatunde, stated that Tunji-Ojo disclosed this after an inspection of the ongoing 3,000-capacity Maximum Security Custodial Centre in Janguza, Kano State as well as the Medium Security Custodial Centre in Kuje, Abuja.
PUNCH Online reports that the FG conducted a similar exercise in its correctional centres across the country.
Speaking at the inspection of the facilities, the Minister was quoted as saying, “The audit is ongoing but the good thing for me is that we did a facility audit earlier and we can see that the result of the facility audit is how we are intervening.
“So, we are very empirical and scientific in our approach. We don’t just throw solutions to unknown problems. We discover the problems, we know the root cause of issues, then we find solutions to them.”
Tunji-Ojo said an empirical method was being deployed to carry out the audit, adding that the audit would result in massive decongestion of the prisons.
He said, “So, the audit system is being empirical. It is scientific and that will lead massively to the decongestion of our Custodial Centres. It is not just saying you want to decongest. It is about you knowing the status. Life is all about data. Data is the new oil.
“Data is the blood of life in this millennium. The audit is going on and by the time we are done with the audit, you will see the level of decongestion that we will have as a result of the audit. So, we are just being empirical.”
At the Kuje facility, the minister got a gift of three books authored by one of the inmates who had been in the correctional centre for 12 years.