The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has revealed the plan of the Federal Government to relocate 29 correctional centres from urban areas.
Tunji-Ojo said the relocation became imperative to curtail the security risk the prisons posed to the society because of their closeness to urban centres.
The minister listed some of the prisons to include: Ikoyi correctional centre, Apapa, Agodi, Enugu, and Suleja.
Tunji-Ojo disclosed this while speaking as a guest on ‘The Big Interview’, hosted by O’tega ‘The Tiger’ Ogra and monitored by Sunday PUNCH.
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The minister said the relocation of the correctional centres was necessitated by the audit carried out on all the 256 correctional centres in the country.
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He faulted the siting of a correctional facility in Ikoyi, Lagos, saying a jail attack on the centre would not only damage the reputation of the country, but also worsen insecurity in the state.
“Our long term plan is the relocation of about 29 of our correctional centres that have been caught up with urbanisation.
“Urbanisation is a major issue; either we like it or not, if what we are about to achieve is to move Ikoyi, Apapa, Agodi, Enugu, couple with some others away from urban centres, but even if it is one that we achieve, we will would have done well.
“What is Ikoyi (prison) doing by sharing a fence with a polo club? What is a correctional centre doing in Ikoyi? God forbid, if there is a prison break in Ikoyi or a prison attack in Ikoyi, do you know the kind of damage that you will make on our reputation as a country, even the social fabrics and everything?
“So, one of our main aim is to look at our correctional centres, for example, the Correctional Service Act, and by all international standard, every correctional centre should have a buffer of at least 100 meters from the next building.
(Punch)