Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has appealed to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) to partner the ministry on provision of skills acquisition to inmates at correctional facilities across the country.
The Minister made the appeal on Friday during a visit on him by the Country Representative of UNODC, Mr. Oliver Stolpe.
Tunji-Ojo said correctional facilities should be a Centre of Reformation of inmates, as indicated by the nomenclature of the facilities.
He said the custodial facilities should not be seen as condemnation centres.
The Minister, while making the passionate appeal, also implored the United Nations agency to always involve the ministry in its intervention across the services under its watch, in order to avoid duplications, which often breeds corruption.
He further allayed the fear of UNODC functionaries in Nigeria of their intervention not being politicised, assuring that he is not one of such politicians that engaged in that, stressing that he is not just a politician but a “Technopol (Techno Politician).”
He also assured the visiting UNODC team that as long as he remained the Minister in the Ministry of Interior, their intervention would surely be implemented with the objectives of the projects, averring that the President was interested in the country’s development.
He said there would, therefore, be no room for duplication of responsibility by the agency and the ministry.
On the latest position on order given for the clearance of 200,000 passport applications backlog, he confirmed that “as of this morning (Friday) about 97,000 passports has been cleared and he assured Nigerians that 24,000 passports would be produced in a day, when the backlogs are cleared”.
The Minister also solicited the support of the organisation on advocacy, reorientation of Nigerians on their mind set about inmates after serving their jail term.
He pleaded for the expansion of the collaboration to cover the six geopolitical zones in the country.
Tunji-Ojo promised to inaugurate an inter- sectoral collaboration with ministries of Justice, Legal Aide’s Council, Judiciary and state governments for true federalism in the approach and also for Nigerians to achieve the real Renewed Hope Agenda of President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The Minister thanked the UNODC for their interventions to Nigeria across many sectors, he pointed out that only UNODC goes into the interior of the country and intervenes where it is critically needed to improve the living condition of Nigerians.
Earlier during the visit, the UNODC team leader, Mr. Oliver Stolpe, congratulated the Minister on his well-deserved appointment
He said they were in the ministry to see the areas of collaboration and equally he enumerated areas the body had intervened.
Stay ahead with the latest updates! Join The ConclaveNG on WhatsApp and Telegram for real-time news alerts, breaking stories, and exclusive content delivered straight to your phone. Don’t miss a headline — subscribe now!
