The House of Representatives on Wednesday resolved to investigate the Open Letter allegedly written by an aggrieved Prison Official to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The resolution was passed sequel to the adoption of a motion sponsored by Hon. Ugonna Ozurigbo.
In his lead debate, Hon. Ozurigbo observed that in recent times, the security situation in Nigeria has become common place with no exception to the place of attack.
“The House also notes that there have been attacks from terrorist groups and non-state actors on the military
formations and barracks. Police Stations and Headquarter, and importantly correctional facilities with recorded fatalities and casualties.
“The House further notes that the recorded successful attacks on these sensitive securities locations have
stirred public reactions that bothered the control, management, discipline and compromise within the system helping the operations of the criminals during the attacks.
“The former President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan described the Kuje incident as an insider job.
“The House is aware that in the past, especially jailbreaks in correctional facilities in which Nigeria, the attacks
on security locations were only seen on TV; now its occurrences in real life have become incessant jailbreaks in 2004 (1), 2007 (1), 2010 (1), 2012 (1), 2013 (2), 2014 (5), 2020 (6), 2021 (6) and
2022.
“The House is worried that there were three jailbreaks between January and July 2022 in Mandala, Kwara State
on 2 January 2022, Agbor correctional facility, Delta State in May and Kuje Prison in July 2022.
“In each of these jailbreaks, inmates escaped and the facility was torched during the Kuje prison break that occurred in July 2029 879 inmates including 64 terrorists affiliated with Islamic State (IS) escaped.
“The House is disturbed that the recent letter written by aggrieved Nigerian Correctional Service personnel to
the President as reported in the Sahara Reporters of July 10 2023 stating that officials now borrow money from inmates is a testimony to the numerous shady activities within the system, and
validating public concern on the allegations of Corruption and poor management of the facilities fueling ‘inside job’ assertions to the attacks in the country.
“The House is also worried that collecting money in the form of any guise has implications. It could be a case of He who pays the piper calls the tune, jailbreaks and other terrible illicit activities will become a more recurring decimal if nothing is done.
“The House is convinced that an intervention from the House of Representatives will unravel the cankerworms which could have caused major laxities and eventually restore sanity to the country’s correctional
services and operations.”
To this end, the House urged the Comptroller General of the Nigerian Correctional Institutions to undertake a staff audit of all employees of the agency and review the service codes of conduct between Prisoners and staff of Nigeria Correctional Service.
Hence, the mandated the Committee on Reformation Institutions (when constituted) to investigate the
state of the Nigerian Correctional Service and report back within three weeks for further legislative action.
