Cross-dresser Bobrisky saga: Minister defends dismissal of senior Correctional officers
The Federal Government yesterday explained the circumstances that led to the dismissal of senior officials of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), including an Assistant Controller General (ACG). The government said
- Tunji-Ojo affirms zero tolerance for corruption, abuse of power
- From Blessing Olaifa, Abuja
The Federal Government yesterday explained the circumstances that led to the dismissal of senior officials of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), including an Assistant Controller General (ACG).
The government said the dismissal was an affirmation of the present administration’s stance on zero tolerance for corruption and abuse of power in NCoS facilities.
The Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, said the ACG and other officers who were found culpable of corruption, abuse of power, and other misdemeanours in the NCoS have been fired.
The minister said such officers betrayed the trust and ethical standards established for them to work with.
He maintained that others found culpable in the line of duty would face the music.
Tunji-Ojo announced that an investigative panel on corruption and abuse of power had submitted its final reports for deliberation and implementation.
Declaring open a stakeholders’ engagement for the presentation and validation of the report of the independent investigation panel on alleged corruption and other violations against the NCoS, the minister said the government had to act quickly on the panel’s interim reports to demonstrate its zero tolerance for acts of indiscipline within the service.
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The engagement with stakeholders, which was held at the Transcorp Hotel in Abuja, was attended, amongst others, by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), the President of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Mazi Afam Osagwe (SAN), the Controller-General of the NCoS, Sylvester Nwakuche, and the Chairperson of the panel and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Interior, Dr. Magdalene Ajani.
Others are: the Director General of Legal Aid Council, Aliyu Bagudu; the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NRC), Tony Ojukwu, and the representatives of UNICEF and the Body of the states’ Attorneys-General and Commissioners for Justice.
Tunji-Ojo said the investigative panel was constituted about 16 months ago following reports of corruption allegations against some prison officials regarding the times spent in custody by popular cross-dresser, Bobrisky.
The minister, who hailed the panel for doing a good job, said the NCoS facilities were not meant for officials to visit inmates with cruelty and degrading treatment.
He said the present administration, in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was poised to carry out reforms that would transform Correctional centres into a true habitat of reformation, reorientation, and seamless reintegration of inmates in accordance with international best standards and practices.
The minister, who praised the present Controller-General of NCoS for his dedication to the ongoing reforms, also called for the activation of non-custodial measures to decongest all correctional facilities across Nigeria.
He said the measures became necessary to address the challenges of overcrowding, feeding of inmates, and other systemic problems, stressing that over 67 per cent of inmates are those awaiting trials, while 90 per cent of the inmates are States offenders.
Tunji-Ojo highlighted ongoing rehabilitations of some Correctional facilities across the country, stating that the government would relocate some of them, considering the fact that urbanisation had caught up with them.
Fagbemi called for concerted efforts to address the criminal justice system in the country.
The minister said the steps taken by the Ministry of Interior regarding the panel was a bold one geared towards accountability and transparency in the management of Correctional facilities in Nigeria.
The AGF, who praised the Minister of Interior and his team, and the panel members for doing a thorough job, said the panel’s recommendations would go a long way to address systemic gaps within Correctional institutions in the country.
Nwakuche expressed gratitude to the Minister of Interior for the wisdom and courage it took to establish the Panel.
“I also wish to commend the Chairman and members of the Panel for the seriousness, diligence, and professionalism with which they discharged what was, by any measure, a weighty national assignment”, Nwakuche added.
“The establishment of this Panel was not an act of condemnation. It was an act of accountability — and accountability, properly understood, is the foundation upon which trust between an institution and the society it serves must be built.
“The Nigerian Correctional Service exists to do more than confine. We are mandated to correct, to rehabilitate, to reintegrate, and above all, to preserve the dignity of every person within our custody because dignity is not forfeited at the point of conviction.
“That mandate places enormous demands on our officers, our infrastructure, and our leadership. And it places equal demands on our willingness to be honest about where we have fallen short.
“Today’s engagement is, therefore, not a ceremony. It is a reckoning — and a constructive one. We have not come here to trade in defensiveness or denial. We have come to listen, to understand, to reflect, and to commit. The findings of this Panel — wherever they are difficult to confront — must be confronted. Not because the Service is defined by its failures, but because it must be measured by its response to them,” Nwakuche said.
“I also want to say this plainly: the majority of our officers serve with professionalism, dedication, and quiet sacrifice, often in conditions that are far from ideal.
“The misdeeds of some must not be permitted to eclipse the honour of the many,” he added.
