Nigerians have been comparing the Nigerian Correctional Service Hotel with the dilapidated inmates custodial centres.
The former Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, inaugurated the 105-room hotel in 2021, reportedly as an investment of the Correctional Service Multi-Purpose Co-operative Society.
However, the sparkling pictures of the “investment” posted on the correctional service’s Facebook page left many Nigerians wondering as to the irony of such a building.
The Nigerian Correctional Service Hotel was opened in 2021.
Presently, many correctional facilities are reported to have fallen short of the best standard.
Inmates are said to be held in dilapidated, overcrowded cells, leading to hazardous living conditions.
Godswill Akpabio, the Senate President, recently claimed that more jailbreaks have occurred in the nation since the Nigerian Prison Service changed its name to the Nigerian Correctional Service.
Unsatisfied with the images of the hotel, many users noted their frustration.
Sadeeq Shehu decried the modern facility in contrast to what he called prisons “built of mud.”
He wrote, “While the Nigerian Correctional Service (alias prisons) has a modern hotel, it has prisons built of mud. All Nigerian security agencies should be divested from all business ventures so that they can concentrate on the job.”
Peter Pepa noted that such an edifice is a deviation from the core objectives of the service.
“What is the Nigerian Correctional Service doing with hotel? This is a clear deviation from the objectives. When there are so many challenges that require urgent attention in prisons, this money should have been channelled to the appropriate areas,” he declared.
He stated that the prisons should be better improved than having a hotel.
“Nigeria Correctional Service is an agency of the Federal Government, financed, sponsored, and empowered by the FG. What’s the essence of building hotels instead of improving our prisons across the nation? I hope it’s not what I’m thinking,” he wrote.
Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, on assumption of office as the Minister of Interior, revealed plans that he would reform the correctional service, noting that his administration would see towards alleviating congestion in custodial centres as well as providing inmates with the opportunity for rehabilitation and reintegration into society.
“I also would like to give assurance that under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu, we would do everything humanly possible to reform our custodial centres, such as the decongestion of those centres —of course, with beaming life—and hope we’d groom inmates and help inmates to ensure proper re-integration into society,” he said.
