From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has assured that the inmates’ cash (both foreign and local currencies) in the custody of the authorities of the custodial centre is intact and not stolen by the fleeing inmates.
The service made the clarification in response to a report that the fleeing inmates stole all the money deposited by inmates.
In a statement, the National Public Relations Officer of the service, Umar Danlami Abubakar, reiterated that all inmates’ cash deposited in the custody of the authorities of the custodial centre was intact and safe, stressing that an existing instruction from the Controller General of Corrections enjoins all officers superintending custodial centres not to keep huge sums in the facility.
Abubakar said it was imperative to make the clarification to counter the impact which misleading and unfounded information had generated, especially the unpatriotic diversion of attention from addressing the challenges at stake.
He said the Controller-General of Corrections, Haliru Nababa, was sparing no effort or resources at hunting down all the escapees, adding that the integrated strategies were yielding favourable results.
He expressed his deep appreciation to security agencies and patriotic Nigerians whose collaboration had facilitated the recovery exercise.
Nababa assured the public of his irrevocable commitment to bringing back all escapees to answer for their crimes.
He, therefore, appealed that citizens should assist in achieving this task by visiting the Nigerian Correctional Service’s website https://corrections.gov.ng/escapee for the pictures of the escapees and alert the nearest security agency if they suspected or saw any of them.