Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the minister of the interior, has said that more than 4,000 offenders are being held in detention centers around the country because they cannot afford to pay their fines.
He claimed that the detainees’ incapacity to pay the various fines imposed by the judges and magistrates had led to the ongoing crisis.
According to a statement released by the minister’s adviser, Alao Babatunde, the remarks were made on Saturday at a meeting with European Union Ambassador to Nigeria Samuela Isopi.
Seventy percent or more of the inmate population of 79,000.
More than 4,000 offenders are incarcerated because they cannot afford to pay their fines.
Inmates in correctional facilities might be reduced by as much as 40%, he added, if the government pursued non-custodial alternatives in accordance with the Correctional Service Act.
He requested that the European Union help Nigeria by providing technologies that would serve to cushion and improve the country’s border control infrastructure.
“Africa will be better off if we can solve crime and migration problems in Nigeria,” he remarked.
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