By Olukayode Idowu
The Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has told the personnel of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) to take their job seriously or be shown the way out.
The Minister equally warned them against sabotage, insisting that no act of sabotage would be allowed from any of them.
He issued the warning during an assessment tour of the National Headquarters of NCoS in Abuja on Wednesday.
The Minister was speaking against the backdrop of series of attacks on custodial centres across the country in the last few years, even as solution has not be found to the perennial problem of prison congestion.
Tunji-Ojo stated in clear term: “We are ready to show the door to whoever wants to sabotage us.”
The Minister revealed that he came to the Ministry to implement the “Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu and would not allow anyone to sabotage his efforts.
He however vowed to make the Service “a correctional institution rather than a condemnation service.”
The Minister, while promising a lot of reforms in the Service, solicited for the supports of the personnel to actualise the reforms.
Earlier, at the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), the minister raised concerns about the lack of correct data of expatriates in the country.
At the NIS, he promised to look into several agreements the NIS had with service providers, adding that those agreements were holding the Service back in actualising its mandates.
He said: “Any agreements (entered into by NIS) that is holding us back as a nation must go.”
He also noted the need to reduce the waiting period to get an international passport, lamenting that Nigerians spend months to get the document.
Revealing a personal experience, he said: “My daughter waited for six months to get her passport booklet. I was a House committee on NDDC chairman, I faced this, tell me what an average Nigerian will face. It’s like we are waiting for a passport to heaven.”
