The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has reiterated the need to partner with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in upgrading the status of the Correctional Service.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Director of Press and Public Relations, Ozone Imohimi, and made available to Channel Network Afrique, CNA.
According to the statement, the minister who made the call when the Country Representative of UNODC in Nigeria, Dr. Oliver Stolpe, paid him a visit in Abuja said, “It is important we implement the inmate audit project as soon as we can. Implementing the inmate audit is key to actualizing our desire and plan for correctional service.”
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 said.
The Interior Minister 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.”
The UNODC Country Representative in Nigeria, Oliver Stolpe, earlier said he was in the minister’s office to update him on the ongoing projects as well as to get his ideas towards the success of the projects of addressing overcrowding and poor prison conditions that threaten human rights, which is a priority to UNODC.
