FG approves employment of 50 doctors, 100 nurses for correctional centres

The Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has announced that President Bola Tinubu has approved the recruitment of 50 medical doctors and 100 nurses for hospitals in the nation’s correctional centres.

Tunji-Ojo revealed this on Tuesday during a courtesy visit to his office in Abuja by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris.

The Interior Minister explained that the approval came in response to a shortage of medical personnel in some correctional facilities. He highlighted that the hospital at the Rivers State correctional centre currently has no medical doctor attending to inmates.

According to him, some facilities, such as the Kuje Correctional Centre, are equipped to perform major surgeries but lacked adequate staff.

“The President understands that he is the President of all Nigerians, including those inmates. And as father to all, he has always shown that he cares,” Tunji-Ojo said.

The minister also spoke on the capacity building initiatives for inmates, including train the trainer programmes.

“We have been able to build capacity through what we call ‘train the trainer.’ We did what we call inmate skills audits. We went to our correctional centres and tried to know the skills these inmates had.

“We now empower them to be able to train other people. Those who graduate, we empower them.

“We have been able to sanitise. And the president has done too well by increasing their feeding allowance by 50 per cent,” he added.

Tunji-Ojo emphasized the importance of the Ministry of Information and National Orientation in communicating the achievements of the Ministry of Interior to Nigerians.

In response, Minister Idris called for stronger collaboration to improve communication between the Federal Government and the public.

“Our job is to ensure that whatever we do, whatever the administration does, the Nigerian public hears it and aligns with it. This is primarily our responsibility,” he said, pledging to highlight the reforms executed by the Ministry of Interior.