Interior minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo said on Thursday that the federal government would consider building prisons with more space, security features, and other infrastructure.
Mr Tunji-Ojo disclosed this when he visited Suleja Medium Security Custodial Centre, where 119 inmates escaped following a rainstorm that damaged the facility on Wednesday.
This was mentioned in a statement issued by the interior ministry’s spokesman, Ozoya Imohimi.
The minister said relocating correctional centres to a conducive environment was imperative.
“This facility was built in 1914 to house 250 inmates. Before this incident, we had 499. This is a testimony to what we keep talking about: the overcrowding of our correctional centres. You can look at the environment, it shows that we need to relocate them away from city centres to create better space, better security and better infrastructure,” he added.
According to him, the ministry is already working behind the scenes to create a correctional system that would benefit everyone.
Mr Tunji-Ojo assured that such an incident would not happen again in any other facility across the country.
“This could have been avoided if the right information was disseminated at the appropriate time on the structure. I was not appointed to make excuses,” the minister stated. “I was appointed to take responsibility and we are not shying away from taking responsibility. We will get them back and we will ensure this doesn’t happen again anywhere in the country.”
NAN