The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, on Tuesday explained why the Federal Government released 4,000 inmates serving different jail terms in correctional facilities across the country.
Aregbesola, who addressed journalists shortly after inaugurating the 53 operational vehicles purchased for the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) in Abuja, said the inmates benefited from the federal government’s Amnesty Programme launched in April 2020.
The minister also revealed that NCoS had a deluge of Awaiting Trial Persons (ATPs), saying the exercise had gone a long way in reducing the number of inmates in the correctional facilities.
He said: “The absence of quick dispensation of justice has been a major drawback to operational efficiency in offenders’ management, often precipitating agitations, jailbreaks as well as escape tendencies.
“Other essential and routine services like taking inmates to the hospital during emergencies, sewage disposal, supply of potable water, and so on require steady functional logistics which were grossly inadequate.”
