The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo has revealed that the Federal Government will pay N500 million fines to secure the freedom of 4,000 inmates from correctional facilities across Nigeria.
Tunji-Ojo disclosed this on Thursday in an interview with Arise TV.
Speaking on plans to decongest correctional facilities, the minister said 4,000 inmates are in prison over their inability to pay a total of over five hundred million naira fines.
He assured that the inmates would be released in the next four weeks.
He said: “The first thing I did immediately I assumed the office was to set up a committee to be able to review the situation of our correctional centres.
“We discovered that more than 4,000 of these inmates, as I have said before, are still in custody due to inability to pay the total fine of about five hundred and something million. And I can tell you we have gone very far dealing with the private sector in terms of CSR and etcetera, putting this money together.
“By the grace of God in the next one month we will have been able to pay the fines of over 4,000 people to reduce the present 79,000 inmates to 75,000 inmates.”
