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Ever since the Honourable Minister of Interior Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-ojo assumed office, it has been about one good news to the other on his various reforms at the agencies under his ministry.
While Nigerians appreciate him for his beautiful reforms in the Nigerian Immigration Service, his urgent intervention in the Nigeiran Correctional Service is highly needed.
It is worrisome to know that some bad elements who are benefiting from the fraud are not happy about the developments.
For instance in the Nigerian Correctional Service on the issue of feeding, Senator Adams Oshiomole recently raised issues at the low cost of feeding inmates on daily basis, it will interest Nigerians to note that inmates are officially being fed on daily basis at the rate of #750 per inmate.
Our team of Investigative Mission at the VANGUARD FOR TRUTH FOUNDATION headed by the DG embarked on a fact finding mission, and the reality is that, Nigerian Correctional Service issues out monthly feeding award letters to various companies who have successfully bidded either through a politician or through the influence of an hgh ranked officer of the Nigerian Correctional Service for the monthly feeding of inmates. All these companies will then sell these contracts and remove 28% from the rate per inmate making a profit of #210 on each inmate and then sell the contract to a cabal(NACO) and one other company who will then buy it at 72% which amounts to #540 per inmate.
It will interest Nigerians to note that the above cabals are not the final bus stop. The cabal who are being referred to as contractors will then approach the heads of each custodial centers and release JUST 64.9%(#350) out of the remaining #540 to the various In-Charges of Custudial Centers in Nigeria and then take the contract award letter to the Controllers to sign that they have truly received the official amount which they never saw. The In-Charges, Controllers and their ACGs( Zonal Coordinators) are also culpable because they also don't feed inmates with the same amount. The In-Charges of various custodial centers will also 'settle' the controllers and their ACGs.
If they say these claims and findings are not true, EFCC, MINISTRY OF INTERIOR, ICPC should ask the contractors and the Nigerian correctional service to come up with;
1. Award letters for feeding to various custodial centers and then compare with those who eventually make the payment to the In-Charges or procure the food items on daily basis to inmates backed up with statement of account,
2. The 3years bank statement of the main contractors to see if there are reflections where they ever bought any food items,
3. Invoices, receipts and bank statements are for the procurement of inmates' food for the past 1year or even 10 years,
4. Bank transactions receipts by contractors on the monthly feeding for the procurement of various food materials
5. The Nigerian Correctional Service should come up with audit report with audit evidences and receipts of food items being procurred and backed up with bank statements of the contractors on feeding of just 50 custodial centers at random for instance.
We also found out that just recently at about a month ago that the Honourable Minister of Interior and the Controller General of the Nigerian Correctional Service just recently sent delegates to commission a laudable Zonal Bakery Project in Benin as a back up of the Minister's intention to make inmates to produce the food they consume and also be trained in the act of bread production as a form of reformation for the inmates.
We found out that the bakery is set for massive production of bread supplies to inmates in the five states of the Zone with capacity to produce nothing less than 32,000 loafs of bread daily and have also recruited external staff who are to complement the inmates and production materials and ingredients are already being made available for the massive production in support of the directive of the Honourable Minister of Interior and the Controller General that the bread should be a part of the inmates daily meal which is also being made available in the media from the day of commissoning, our finding is that the project is currently being frustrated by the In-Charges of various custodial centers, the controllers and their ACG in that particular Zone as they have refused to procure the products from the bakery and have refused to make necessary payments to the bakery ahead of bread purchases as they are realistically the ones procuring what the inmates consume from what is being made available by the fraudulent feeding contractors.
Currently, an inmate is being fed with just #200 DAILY meant for breakfast, lunch and diner because from the remaining #350 being given to the various heads of custodial centers, they will also take #50 for themselves and also use #50 to settle their controllers and ACG. This is however one of the reasons they are frustrating the laudable idea of inmates producing what they consume. They do not want anything to happen to the illegal money they are making from the feeding of inmates. If urgent intervention is not done, danger looms as inmates may embark on jail break for low quality feeding.
From: THE VANGUARD FOR TRUTH FOUNDATION
Alhaji Yussuf Ibrahim
Director General
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