- ‘2.7m passports issued in two years’
A total of 3,906 prisoners who fled some of the nation’s custodial centres during attacks and prison breaks are still on the run, Interior Minister Rauf Aregbesola has said.
The minister spoke yesterday during the weekly ministerial briefing hosted by the Presidential Media Team at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
He said of the 4,369 inmates who escaped from the centres since 2020, only 984 have been recaptured.
Aregbesola said the biometrics of custodial inmates in the country had been taken to ease the tracking and re-arrest of the escapees.
“How long can they continue to run from the state? The state is a patient bird. You can run, but you can never hide. We have their biometrics. Whenever and wherever they appear to transact any business, their cover will be blown.
“I will like to inform Nigerians that we have captured the biometric information of all inmates in the facilities of Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), working in partnership with the Nigerian Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
“Therefore, we have the capacity and are tracking all escapees from our facilities. In addition, we are working with and have shared the details of the escapees with INTERPOL to check the risks of cross border movements,” he said.
The minister also said 465 inmates are currently running various degree programmes around the country, with 85 of them running postgraduate programmes and four others doing Ph.D programmes.
He said 560 inmates had been enrolled for WAEC/NECO examinations while 2,300 were enrolled for Adult Literacy classes in several custodial centers.
“There are various ongoing reformation and education programmes for inmates in our custodial facilities. The service, in partnership with the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), has increased the number of study centers to 10 across correctional formations in Abeokuta (Ogun), Awka (Anambra), Enugu, Kaduna, Keffi (Nasarawa), Kuje (Abuja), Lafia (Nasarawa), Lagos, Port Harcourt (Rivers), and Umuahia (Abia).
Speaking on the difficulty Nigerians are experiencing in getting international passports, Aregbesola assured them that their frustration would soon turn into cheers.
The minister announced that 2,742,207 passports had been issued by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) in the last two years.
“It is important to inform you that we have witnessed growing demand for the Nigerian passport, both locally and by Nigerians in Diaspora. A total of 2,742,207 passports of different categories were issued from 2019 to date.
“The year-on-year increasing growth rate is, however, putting a lot of pressure on the current processing structure and resources and further justifies the need for a reform in the passport application and processing system in line with the current reality,” he said.
