The Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo warned yesterday that officials of the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) found culpable in the apartment-for-prison scandal involving notorious cross-dresser, Idris Okuneye a.k.a. Bobrisky would not go unpunished.
The social and traditional media has trended lately with stories of how some NCoS officials allegedly arranged a private apartment for the cross-dresser where he spent his jail term instead of the prison cell after he was sentenced to six months imprisonment by a federal high court in Lagos for naira abuse.
Tunji-Ojo, who spoke at a media briefing in Abuja to mark his one year in office, vowed that no personnel or officer of the Nigeria Correctional Service found in the ongoing probe to be involved in the scandal would be spared.
He promised that as was indicated by the calibre of people in the panel probing the incident, the investigation would be diligent, detailed and far reaching to bring sanity and discipline to the Correctional Service environment.
The minister also said Nigerians in diaspora would henceforth enjoy seamless acquisition of passports, especially those in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
This will come into effect as the Federal Government activates Automated Passport Application system by October.
The minister said that all backlogs of passports had been cleared, noting that the Nigeria Immigration Service, (NIS) no longer owes its service providers regarding printing and supply of passports.
“We now have about 80,000 Passports in our stocks, both the 32 pages and the 70 pages,” he said.
He added that henceforth, Nigerians in the diaspora would not need to travel from one country to another to obtained Passports, noting that the era in which they wasted working hours and resources and risked their lives on long journey was gone.
He said: “We are going to do a pre-launch of this automated system very soon. And by October they will be fully operational.
“We have a situation in London where we have 16,000 Nigerians applying for Passports, and the capacity of our systems in the Embassy is about 200.
“But now that we have this system in place, Nigerians would not have to embark on different journeys across the world for Passport acquisition.”
Tunji-Ojo also justified the increase in Passports fees, saying it is a matter of cost-benefits analysis, especially “when you look at the rate of dollar compared to naira”.
He also said the increase didn’t affect the cost of Passports outside Nigeria, saying the increase was only about 45 per cent.
He said government is not exploiting Nigerians but to cover the cost of procurement of Passports.
“If at all government should subsidise anything, I don’t think it should be Passports. The increase is just from N35,000 to N50,000. No increase outside Nigeria”, Tunji-Ojo said.
He urged journalists to focus on magnifying the policy thrust of the present administration rather than looking at the negatives as President Bola Tinubu only inherited most of the challenges facing the country.
Tunji-Ojo was flanked at the briefing by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr Magdalene Ajani, the Commandant General of Civil Defence Corps, Dr Ahmed Audi, the Controller General of Correctional Service, Haliru Nababa and the Commandant General of the Federal Fire Service, Abdulganiyu Jaji.
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He praised President Bola Tinubu for the attention given to the Ministry, saying without his approvals nothing much could have been achieved.
The minister said on assuming office, 204,332 Passports backlogs were cleared within three weeks while the government had within one year built the Command and Control Centre at the headquarters of the Nigeria Immigration Service to provide real time tech-driven services for Nigeria.
“We are also installing a total of 41 e-gates at our airports (eight at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, 21 slated for the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, and four each at the international airports in Kano, Enugu, and Port Harcourt) offering diasporan Nigerians and returning citizens an automated, hassle-free screening process,” the minister said.
Speaking on the fight against vandalism and the protection of critical infrastructure by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the achievements under the Nigeria Correctional Service, the Minister said: “Over the past year, we arrested 2,254 vandals and oil bunkerers, with 550 currently under prosecution and 122 convictions already secured. In addition, the NSCDC disrupted organised crime networks by destroying 150 illegal refineries and 64 illegal oil dumps.
“The reform of the private security sector has also yielded impressive results. 115 licensed companies are now legally operating, and we are in the process of licensing an additional 178 companies.
“Moreover, a total of 3,394 private security guards have undergone rigorous training, while the sector generated an impressive revenue of ₦861,620,500.
“Over the past year, 21,383 senior officers and 2,551 junior officers were promoted, while 818 junior officers were upgraded to senior officer cadre, ensuring a motivated and capable workforce.
“Additionally, through partnerships with the private sector, we facilitated the release of over 4,000 inmates, reducing custodial overcrowding by 5%, without incurring any cost to the government.”
