The Federal Government has recorded a significant drop in the number of repeat offenders within the Nigerian Correctional Service, with recidivism figures plummeting from 11,616 in 2023 to 1,382 in 2025. The Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji Ojo, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja during the formal presentation of an investigative report on the state of the nation’s custodial centres.
Tunji Ojo attributed the sharp decline to sustained investment in inmate rehabilitation and educational reformation initiatives across the country’s custodial formations. He noted that progress is being made and that success will only be declared when recidivism gets to zero. The minister also revealed that over 15,600 inmates were admitted into custody in May 2026 alone, while 14,190 individuals were released upon the expiration of their terms within the same period.
Tunji Ojo announced plans to establish an aggressive implementation framework backed by an independent monitoring and evaluation committee to ensure that the findings of the investigative panel are rigorously executed. As part of impending structural overhauls, he flagged several colonial-era facilities, including the Suleja custodial centre built in 1914 and the Ikoyi facility built in 1955, for total relocation.
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He noted that urban encroachment had swallowed up the mandatory 100 metre security buffer zones of facilities in Enugu, Abakaliki, Ibadan, and Lagos, leaving some sitting dangerously close to markets and government offices. He appealed to state governments to co-fund the relocation exercises, arguing that about 90 percent of inmates are state offenders, not federal offenders, and 67 percent are awaiting trial.
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