A total of 9,000 inmates will be accommodated in the three custodial centres being constructed by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, has said.
He said that the three custodial centres located in Karshi, Janguza and Bori were at different stages of completion.
According to him, the three are among the six new custodial centres approved for construction by the President.
The minster who spoke when he featured on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja, said that the modern custodial facilities were spread across Nigeria’s geo-political zones.
He said that the new project was part of Federal Government’s commitment to the reform of correctional services in Nigeria.
“Our administration on assumption of duty decided to have special facilities which six of such facilities were proposed at the beginning.
“What is special about the facilities we are talking about is, we now have mega facilities, I call it custodial village facility, because each of the six will have capacity for 3,000 inmates.
“This is almost unprecedented in Africa, if not in the world. In Africa, no nation has such facility within my own limit of knowledge from the study of African continent, there is no nation not even South of Africa.
“Three are very close to completion, one is almost completed; that is the one at Janguza in Kano; we will commission that by the end of this year, latest, ” he said.
Aregbesola said that the facility in Karshi, FCT was 75 per cent completed while that of Bori in Rivers was about 55 per cent.
The minister, however, appealed to President Buhari to provide special funding to complete the three custodial villages.
“It means the country would now have custodial villages that could accommodate 9,000 inmates, each with 3000 capacity,” he added.
According to the minister, the three other mega custodial centres in Ilesha, Umuahia, and another in the Northeast are at different stages of take-off.
“Ilesha is determined and the place is on, Umuahia is about to start, but we need financial support intervention to complete the first three,” he said.
Aregbesola said that the government had also built smaller Custodial facilities which were yet to be inaugurated.
The minster assured that the Federal Government had taken measures to enhance the security of custodial centres.
He said this was neccessary as threats to custodial facilities was no longer from within but from outside the centres.
“We must therefore make sure to upgrade our own preparation by instituting military bases, police, and other armed agencies stations around our facilities,” the minister he said. (NAN)
