Interior Ministry Orders Audit of Juvenile Centres
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Interior, Dr Magdalene Ajani, has directed the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) to submit a comprehensive status report on all juvenile custodial facilities within four weeks.
Ajani, who chairs the Independent Investigative Panel on Alleged Corruption and Other Violations Against the NCoS, issued the order during the panel’s third public hearing in Abuja on Monday. She expressed alarm over the illegal detention of minors, the mixing of juveniles with adult inmates, poor welfare conditions, and systemic administrative lapses.
“You are going to send to the ministry the status report of all the borstal centres that have been completed or not, requisited or not. We need to be serious with what we are doing. When we visited about 28 states’ custodial centres, we found out that you don’t lump underage with adults. Submit the report in four weeks’ time,” Ajani told NCoS officials.
She questioned the legal basis for admitting minors into correctional institutions without court orders and raised concerns over warrants allegedly issued by unauthorised security agencies. She also condemned the detention of mentally ill inmates without treatment, despite proximity to psychiatric hospitals.
Ajani criticised unclear recruitment processes, inadequate budgeting for children born to incarcerated women, and the mismanagement of facilities such as Ilorin’s borstal or halfway home, where adults well above the eligible age bracket were reportedly housed. She ordered their immediate removal and proof of compliance within four weeks.
“We can’t put up the pictures of what we saw there — horrible. So it’s an urgent thing that needs to be done,” she said, stressing the panel’s goal was to ensure reforms, not indict individuals.
Panel Secretary Uju Agomoh outlined the body’s broad mandate, which includes probing corruption, abuse, and systemic failings in correctional institutions.
She cited specific allegations of misconduct, including intimidation of an inmate at Kuje Correctional Centre and questions over whether Idris Okuneye, popularly known as Bobrisky, had served his sentence.
Agomoh said the panel has conducted facility visits nationwide, received full cooperation from the NCoS, and will present recommendations aimed at systemic reform and safeguarding inmates’ rights.
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