BREAKING NEWS: 4,000 inmates languishing in jail unable to pay N500m fines — Minister

The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, said yesterday that over 4,000 inmates held in prisons across the country were unable to pay N500 million in fines.

He also for the umpteenth time, vowed to tackle the delays Nigerians in the diaspora encounter obtaining their passports.

Tunji-Ojo, who disclosed this in an interview in Arise News, said he had met with some private organisations to raise the money, assuring that in the next four weeks, the fines would be cleared and the inmates released.

He said: “Immediately I resumed, I set up a committee to review the situation at our prisons. We discovered that over 4,000 inmates are in custody due to their inability to pay fines which is about N500 million. We have gone far with private organisations to put this money together.

“I am sure within the next four weeks, we will be able to pay these fines for the 4,000 inmates which will help us in decongesting our custodial centres. ”

He noted that the decongestion of the prisons was not the responsibility of the only ministry, adding that he had been discussing with the Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, to combat the issue of awaiting trial inmates.

”The decongestion of our custodial centres is not the sole responsibility of the ministry. We are in talks with the AGF to see how cases can be expedited.

”We have also activated the non-prison centres to decongest the prisons,” the minister added.

Vows to curb passport delay

He also vowed to tackle the delays Nigerians in the diaspora encounter obtaining their passports, disclosing that more passport desk offices would be established worldwide by February 2024 to ease the burden of obtaining a passport by those in the diaspora.

While assuring that Nigerians in the diaspora who had been captured would get their passports in the next three weeks, Tunji-Ojo said after clearing the backlogs in the country, his attention had shifted to those in the diaspora.