The Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, on Friday sought for collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) to provide skills training to inmates of custodial centres.Tunji-Ojo made the appeal when UNODC officials paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja.
He said that the collaboration would enhance the role of the correctional facilities, which is centred on reformation of inmates.Tunj-Ojo said that the ministry would welcome any other intervention from UNODC to all the services under the ministry.The minister assured that any intervention from the UN agency would not be politicised, but properly implemented for the benefit of Nigerians.He said that President Bola Tinubu was interested in the country’s development, as such there would be no room for lapses or duplication of efforts.
He informed the delegation that the Nigerian Immigration Service has as at Friday, cleared about 97,000 passports out of the over 200,000 pending applications before it about a week ago.The minister assured Nigerians that 24,000 passports would be produced daily when the backlogs were cleared.
The minister also solicited the support of the organisation on advocacy and reorientation of Nigerians to relate positively with inmates who completed their jail terms.Earlier, the agency’s team leader, Mr Oliver Stolpe, said that the team was in the ministry to explore areas of collaboration.(NAN)
