Prison Decongestion: FG to pay N500m fine for release of 4,000 inmates

Minister of interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo says the federal government will pay N500 million in fines to ensure the release of 4,000 inmates from correctional facilities nationwide.

Earlier this year, former minister of interior, Rauf Aregbesola, said 5,000 inmates were in correctional facilities nationwide over fines of less than N1 million.

Aregbesola said the high number of inmates who were unable to pay the fines was the reason prisons in the country are congested.

Speaking on the plans to decongest correctional facilities, on Thursday Tunji-Ojo said 4,000 inmates are in prison due to their inability to pay a “total of five hundred and something million” in fines.

He assured that the fines would be cleared and the inmates would be released in the next four weeks.

The minister added that the ministry pulled the funds together through “dealing with the private sector in terms of CSR”.

“Immediately I assumed office, the first thing I did was to set up a small committee to be able to review the situation of our correctional centres, vis-à-vis the inmates as they are,” the minister said.

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“And we discovered that over 4,000 of these inmates, as I’ve said before, are still in custody due to inability to pay fines.

“We looked at how much they owe, the total fine is about five hundred and something million, and I can tell you we’ve gone very far dealing with the private sector in terms of CSR and etcetera, putting this money together.

“And I’m sure that in the next three weeks or one month, four weeks maximum, because I like to be held responsible for what I say, so let me say in the next four weeks, even though we are looking at doing it before then, but I’m giving myself a buffer.

“So, in the next four weeks, by the grace of God, we will have been able to pay those fines of over 4,000 people, which will reduce us from the present almost 79,000 inmates to about 75,000 inmates.”