The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has reshuffled its high-ranking officials in what sources say is to stem the tide of jailbreaks across the country.
The top officials have been asked to vacate their current positions for what is seen as lesser roles due to what insiders say is their failure to prevent jail attacks.
The Deputy Comptroller General of Corrections (DCG) in charge of operations, Ahmed Tukur, and the Deputy Comptroller of Corrections (DCC), Head of Intelligence and Investigations, Nkechi Nwanebo, have been asked to quit their roles and have been redeployed.
According to an internal memo seen by newsmen, the two senior officials will henceforth take up positions of Non-Custodial Measures (NCM) Directorate and the Operations Service (OPS) Directorate respectively.
Also, Aminu Yusuf, who was in charge of the Armed Squad Unit (ASU) of the correctional service, has been moved to the Medium Security Custodial Centre (MSCC), Bauchi, to assume a position that our sources say is “less demanding and degrading.”
According to the memo, the Controller-General of Corrections, Haliru Nababa, has ordered all affected officers to conclude the processes of handing and taking over before next Friday, urging them to “ensure strict compliance”.
In May 2021, the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, decorated Mr Tukur and Mr Nwanebo after they were both promoted to the position of Deputy Controller General of the correctional service.
Mr Aregbesola, during the decoration, said the officers were installed at a period the country was facing a major national security crisis.
“The Ministry of Interior is always on the mouth of commentators and analysts when the security situation in the country is being mentioned. This is to let you know the great expectations people have of you,” he told reporters in Abuja. “We have been in the throes of bandits, insurgents and other baddies, draining resources and psychic energy. Our agencies must rise to the plate.”
He warned the newly decorated correctional officers that “criminals will keep getting more sophisticated in order to be ahead of you; but in order to beat them, you have to be ahead of their game at all times”.
Unfortunately, the DCGs came on board at a period criminal elements were massively attacking custodial centres across the country. In September, a few months after their decorations, about 240 inmates were freed when gunmen attacked a detention facility in Kogi State with explosive devices.
Again, in October, over 100 inmates escaped from the Oyo Custodial Centre after gunmen raided the facility for several hours, killing a soldier and a local security agent. The following month, another jailbreak occurred when some criminal elements attacked the Jos Medium Security Prison, releasing over 200 inmates.
Before they were installed as DCGs, however, there had been a series of jailbreaks in the country, especially in the southeast. In April 2021 alone, over 2000 prisoners broke out of jail in Imo State with the Federal Government accusing members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a separatist group, of orchestrating the jailbreaks in the southeast region.
The spokesperson of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Francis Enabore, told newsmen that the reshuffle was necessary to prevent future attacks on prison facilities across the country.
Asked what the NCoS authority is doing to curb jailbreaks in the country, he said: “The Nigerian Correctional Service since creation was never designed to withstand these levels of high military jail attacks. Otherwise, we would have had trenches of military formations well positioned.
“The security architecture was built around preventing jailbreaks — that is inmates breaking out of the prisons — and not people breaking in. But now, we have high military-grade attacks. We’re talking about people coming in with explosives and amours. But we’re gearing up to put up formidable forces against the attackers.”
On January 17, Mr Aregbesola ordered prison officials to kill criminal elements attempting to attack any of the correctional centres in the country.
The former Osun Governor said this while inspecting the Agodi Custodial Centre, Ibadan, Oyo State, adding that an attack on any correctional centre would be detrimental to the state.
He said: “The most important thing is the security of this facility. Make this facility impregnable. It is a red zone, a dangerous zone. Whoever attempts to breach the security here is already dead. He must not live to tell the story. Other people will tell his or her story.”
“Any effort to breach our facility is not acceptable. Don’t shoot to injure, shoot to kill. Don’t shoot to disable, shoot to kill. This is a total embodiment of the state to guarantee the security of the people.”