The Federal Government has expressed its commitment to collaborate with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in upgrading the status of the nation’s correctional service.
Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, stated this when the Country Representative, UNODC in Nigeria, Dr Oliver Stolpe, visited him in his office, according to a statement made available by the Director of Press and Public Relations, Ozoya Imohimi, on Wednesday in Abuja.
Tunji-Ojo also spoke on the need to implement the inmate audit project as soon as possible.
“It is important we implement the inmate audit project as soon as we can. Implementing the inmate audit is key to actualising our desire and plan for correctional service,” he said.
Dr Tunji-Ojo said he is poised to transform the correctional centres to become correctional and reformative in nature, not destructive.
“These people are vulnerable because they don’t have freedom of choice. Correctional centres take the freedom of movement but retain your dignity as a citizen and as a human being.
“So while we want to retain the dignity of people, while we are restricting their access in terms of movement and interactions, we must also make sure that we don’t condemn them. We must make sure they are reformed from correctional centres to correctional homes.”.
He expressed gratitude to UNODC for their interventions. “You are a worthy partner; you supported us in all our plans and endeavours towards making correctional service a better one. Thank you for the efforts you are making in terms of funding and, of course, your contribution technically.
“I do not want to leave as Minister of Interior with regrets in terms of correctional reforms; I want to leave knowing that I did my best by giving life to the most vulnerable and that I did my best to ensure that the renewed hope agenda of Mr President finds a suitable place in the correctional centres and correctional service in general.”
Earlier, the UNODC Country Representative in Nigeria, Oliver Stolpe, said he was in the Ministry to update the Minister on the ongoing projects and to get his ideas on ensuring the success of the projects.
UNODC has been working as a priority to address overcrowding and poor prison conditions, which, according to the UN agency, threaten human rights.
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