Rauf Aregbesola who is the Nigerian Minister of Interior has revealed that the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) is still in search for some 3,906 inmates who had escaped during attacks on correctional centres in Edo State.
It had been reported that about 4,369 inmates had escaped from the correctional centre in 2020 following some attacks by gunmen in the State.
However, Aregbesola had also added that only 984 had been rearrested.
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The Minister of Intereior had also stated this at the opening of a two-day retreat for senior management of the service in Sokoto State. He had made it clear that the strategies and deliberations at the retreat should be centred around solutions for recapturing all escaped inmates to safeguard communities in the State.
The minister expressed displeasure over the negative impact of the #EndSARS protests which later turned violent leading to attacks on custodial facilities, hence the rise in the attacks on facilities.
”Retreats are for bonding, contemplating purpose and setting future goals. Therefore, the major issue that must be considered during this retreat is the de-congestion of custodial facilities,” he said.
He recalled that during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the policies, quickly put in place then, was the de-congestion programme under which thousands of inmates were released on compassionate grounds.
“The follow-up to that is the consideration that we should find further ways to keep de-congesting our facilities. We started work on the idea of compiling the list of convicted inmates serving light terms for not too serious offences, who were in custody because they could not pay their fines.”
The Interior Minister had also commended the service for being able to manage the centres during the pandemic without recording a single infection.
He had also added that the agency did a good job of keeping the virus away and must continue to keep the facilities safe and sound from inside and outside.