30-50% of offences don’t warrant incarceration, says Tunji-Ojo

Nigeria's Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has asserted that a significant portion of inmates in African correctional facilities are incarcerated for offenses that do not warrant imprisonment. Speaking at a regional conference in Abuja, he challenged correctional authorities to critically assess their overcrowding issues, suggesting that 30 to 50 percent of offenses might not necessitate incarceration.

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Is your correctional centre rightfully overcrowded? That is the question. You have to look at those particular offences. You will realise that more than 30, 40, 50 per cent are offences that do not warrant incarceration.

Tunji-Ojo revealed that 93 percent of inmates in Nigeria are state offenders, with a substantial number held for minor infractions. He recounted directing officials to review records of inmates held for fines and compensation below a certain threshold, discovering over 4,000 such cases. The minister questioned the economic rationale of imprisoning individuals whose annual upkeep costs exceed their fines, noting that releasing these inmates led to a 5% decongestion of facilities in a single day.

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93% of our inmates in Nigeria are state offenders. Only 7% are federal offenders. And of this 93%, I want to tell you before this president came on board, a lot of them were for minor offences that had no need for incarceration.

The minister also highlighted a dramatic reduction in recidivism in Nigeria's correctional centers, dropping from approximately 13,000 annual cases in 2023 to 1,000 last year. He attributed this improvement to increased access to education and vocational training, citing that 62 inmates are pursuing postgraduate studies, 261 are in undergraduate programs, 1,125 are in formal education, and 9,582 are enrolled in vocational training.

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What is the sense in this? Because I feed them in a year with more than 10 times the fine. So how is the government benefiting? And we were able to clear that, and in one day, we decongested our correctional centre by 5% in one day. In one day.