The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has sanctioned no fewer than 147 personnel for various acts of misconduct, including complicity in contraband trafficking within custodial centres.
The Controller-General of Corrections, Sylvester Nwakuche, disclosed this on Tuesday, May 5, in Abuja, reiterating the agency’s commitment to sanitising the system.
In a related development, the service destroyed a total of 1,167 mobile phones, comprising iPhones, Android devices, button phones, and other gadgets, smuggled into correctional facilities across the country.
The destruction exercise took place at the NCoS headquarters in Abuja, where Nwakuche personally supervised the burning of the confiscated items.
The latest sanctions and destruction exercise form part of ongoing reforms aimed at strengthening discipline, professionalism, and security within Nigeria’s correctional system.
Nwakuche described the exercise as a strong signal of the agency’s resolve to confront threats to security and discipline within custodial centres.
According to him, the move underscores the determination of the service to “decisively confront and eliminate all threats to the security, order and integrity of the custodial centres.”
Speaking after the exercise, the Controller-General said the destroyed items were recovered from various custodial facilities nationwide over the past eight months.
“These items are prohibited materials recovered from custodial centres across the country within the last eight months,” he said.
“They include mobile phones, SIM cards, and other unauthorised materials. Their presence within our facilities is unacceptable. They compromise security, disrupt discipline, and create channels through which criminal activities are sustained from within custody.”
Nwakuche also revealed that a total sum of ₦2,569,000, confiscated from inmates during the operations, had been remitted to the appropriate government treasury.
“Smuggled and trafficked cash totalling ₦2,569,000 confiscated from inmates in the course of these operations has been duly paid into the appropriate government treasury in line with extant financial regulations,” he stated.
The corrections boss reaffirmed the agency’s zero-tolerance stance on indiscipline, warning that any personnel found culpable would face severe consequences, including dismissal.
He stressed that contraband trafficking within custodial centres often involves internal compromise.
“Let me state clearly: the trafficking of contraband into our custodial centres cannot occur without some level of internal compromise,” he said.
“Any officer who aids, ignores, or facilitates this act is in direct violation of their oath and a threat to the integrity of this Service.”
Issuing a stern warning, Nwakuche said officers involved in such acts would face the full wrath of the law.
“Anyone found culpable will be visited with the full weight of the law, as others before them have already experienced. Be warned,” he added.
NaijaNews / Tunmise Adesanmi
