According to the Federal Government, it will start the process of moving Ikoyi Prison and a few other correctional facilities from the nation’s urban centers to distant locations.
According to the minister, urbanization has reduced the natural barriers that should surround the nation’s correctional facilities.
“Under this administration, we have not experienced a jail attack,” stated Tunji-Ojo. “Instead, we have experienced a force majeure event, specifically Suleja, as that specific correctional facility was constructed in 1914. It has 110 years or so on it.
“At 110 years old, President Tinubu was not the President. 256 correctional facilities that need maintenance were left to him. He could never have overhauled it entirely in a year.
“I have to discuss urbanization. Take Suleja, for instance. The next house was only seven meters from the Suleja Correctional Center, which collapsed. rather than the 100-meter boundary that the law stipulates. The impact of urbanization is profound.
“Observe how the Ikoyi Correctional Center and (another house) share a fence. Why is there a jail facility in Ikoyi? The possibility of moving some of these correctional facilities is something that this government is considering.
He said that the government will soon start a “inmate audit” of all 256 correctional facilities in the nation in order to sanitize them by releasing inmates who had no business being there in the first place.
President Bola Tinubu inherited a large number of dilapidated correctional facilities that require maintenance, according to Tunji-Ojo, but the government has begun to restore and reconstruct a portion of Nigeria’s jail system.
He remarked, “Under this administration, we’ve renovated over 10 correctional centers,” and added that the government had worked “magic in the Kuje correctional center.”
Constructed in 1955, the Ikoyi prison is situated in the upscale Ikoyi neighborhood on Lagos Island. In October 2020, during the peak of the #EndSARS demonstration against police brutality and its repercussions, prisoners sought to exploit the unrest in the nation, but the effort was thwarted by security personnel at the prison. In the past few years, there have been several jailbreaks reported nationwide, leaving a considerable number of prisoners free.