Jail Break:  Aregbesola Orders Prison Authority To Take Inmates’ DNA 

The Minister of Interior, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola has directed the Nigerian Correctional Service that the DNA of all the inmates at the custodian centres across the country be captured in order to have a true picture of their identities if they escape from custody.

The minister who also gave a matching order to the prison officials that all fleeing inmates wherever they are should be recaptured, noted that their continued stay outside the Correctional centers was dangerous to the society.

He urged the service to deploy all means available to get them back into the custodian centers.

Aregbesola gave this order at the retreat for senior officers of the Nigerian Correctional Service held in Sokoto on Monday.

In his words, “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.”

The Interior Minister further said the service should not be blamed for the attacks on correctional centers across the country, adding that personnel was trained to avert attacks from within.

Aregbesola emphasised that the service had learnt from the experience, noting that the service was prepared for any attack both within and outside.