From Abdul Salaudeen, Ilorin
President Bola Tinubu may have no option than to wield the big stick, as succession crisis among the top echelon of the Nigerian Correctional Service has triggered a full blown management problem.
AljazirahNigeria reports that the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has failed to put down his foot to stem the avoidable crisis.
Inside sources in Ilorin, Kwara State, revealed that the current Controller General of Correctional Service, Mr Sylvester Ndidi Nwakuche, has been illegally occupying the position, as he ought to have officially retired from service on May 9, according to his records of service.
“This has led to a situation whereby the deputies (DCGs) have decided not to cooperate with him since May 9 and Nwakuche has allegedly been running the service with the Minister of Interior.
“The DCGs, namely Ado Sale, Lanre Amoran, Amos Kupan, Suleiman Adagiri and Ope Fatinukun believe that Nwakuche should have handed over to one of them since May, because, according to them, President Bola Tinubu did not extend the tenure of service for Nwakuche.
“Administration has been at a very low ebb at the National Headquarters of the correctional service as the DCGs and ACGs have refused to take orders from the CG. The staff are confused as to whether the CG should still be in office in the last four months,” the source alleged.
President Tinubu confirmed the appointment of Nwakuche as substantive CG which the Senate finally confirmed and he was decorated on May 2, a few days to his official retirement, whereby he has been in office since December 2024 in acting capacity.
A staff, reacting in anonymity, said “nothing again is working in the correctional service, staff are buying uniforms from open market, no course allowances for staff on training, instead you pay hundreds of thousands, our salaries are deducted for frivolous projects every month and these things are allocated for by government every month.”
A seasoned lawyer in an interview suggested to the federal government to carry out a holistic overhaul of the correctional system to be able to align with the name change from Prisons to Correctional Service.
The lawyer observed that “a visit to correctional centers depict a gory picture of thousands of abandoned inmates, no adequate food supplies, no drugs, unconducive cells, no vehicle to convey inmates to court, just as they are extorted by warders to pay their transport to and from courts.
“All these fall short of the International Standard Minimum Rule required by the United Nations of which Nigeria is a signatory to.”
He called on President Tinubu to do a proper check of the correctional system, as a nation is often rated according to how it treats the vulnerable, especially inmates.
Nwakuche was CG in acting capacity on December 14, 2024, because of the confusion that ensued at the expiration of the tenure of the former CG, Haliru Nababa.
Nababa’s attempts, according to sources, to get his tenure extended hit the rocks when there was disagreement between Tunji-Ojo and a retired CG and the immediate past Secretary of the Civil Defence, Correctional, Immigration and Fire Service Board, Ja’afaru Ahmed, as to whose name among the DCGs and ACGs is to be forwarded to the presidency to take over from Nababa.
Tunji-Ojo was said to have angrily instructed Ja’afaru to write to Nababa to hand over to Nwakuche in acting capacity as a stop gap measure.
That stop gap measure has now given rise to crisis in the service, because Nwakuche has overstayed his tenure with over four months, which is unacceptable according to the Public Service Rules, PSR.
