The Federal Government has directed the recapturing of all fleeing inmates and the general DNA documentation of all inmates at the Nigerian Correctional Service.
This was directed through the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, at a retreat for senior officers of the Nigerian Correctional Service held in Sokoto on Monday.
He said, “In our desire to have greater control and ease the recapture of escaped inmates, it is very important to also have their DNA the moment they come into your care. The usefulness of this is more than recapturing escaped inmates. DNA will give you a near-absolute certainty on the identity of the inmates in your care, 99.99999 per cent, according to the experts.
“If you need to create a special unit, please do. You must make life difficult for them out there. I am directing you that you must take DNA of everyone in custody now. If we have not developed the capacity of our personnel to do so, we will.
“We must fashion out strategies to recapture them. We must use technology to capture these inmates, let us use everything we can, let the world knows we are committed.”
He also said the service should not be blamed for the attacks on correctional centres across the country, adding that personnel was trained to avert attacks from within.
Aregbesola stressed that the service had learnt from the experience, noting that the service was prepared for any attack both within and outside.
