FG APPROVES PROMOTION OF 52,000 PARAMILITARY OFFICERS ..... Commences 2025 Promotion Examination

Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo 
Minister of Interior 

“If we know where we were, we will appreciate where we are." Tunji-Ojo.

..... The administration of President Bola Tinubu has approved the training and proper equipment of paramilitary officers to enable them function properly and properly manage the nation's internal security which is their responsibility and not that of the military."

Nigeria's Minister of Interior Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has restated the commitment of the Federal Government under the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to ensure that the country's internal security architecture gets the desired attention it deserves.

The Minister who disclosed this on Thursday, 20 March during the annual Ministerial Press Briefing in Abuja, also revealed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved a fifty percent increment in the feeding allowances of inmates within the Custodial Centres in the country.

According to Tunji-Ojo Besides, Mr. President has equally approved the relocation of 29 Correctional Centres that are within residential areas due to urban development.

"The standard distance for any custodial centre should be located 100 metres away from residential buildings. For instance, the correctional centre in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, is located opposite the Government House, while Suleja Prison is now within the community." He stated.

He disclosed that, "over 3,000 buildings in more than 240 correctional centres are being renovated. Some of these centres were built over 50 years ago, while one of them was constructed in 1914.

“If we know where we were, we will appreciate where we are,” he said.

The Interior Minister, while speaking on the issue of jail breaks at the Correctional Centres stated that the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has recorded two jailbreaks and no jail attacks.

"A jailbreak", he explained, "is organised by the inmates, while a jail attack is orchestrated from outside the prison".

"However, the ministry had put in place a proactive policing system, which made it possible for the inmates in Suleja Prison who escaped after a heavy flood felled their fence to be rearrested within 48 hours," he said.

Equally, he noted that, as part of moves to reduce the high number of minor offenders and alleviate congestion of inmates in correctional centres across the country, the Federal Government has released over 4,082 inmates to save the nation more than N1 billion annually.

Tunji-Ojo also noted that in one year, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu approved the promotion of 52,000 paramilitary officers, and the ministry has started another promotion examination for 2025.

The Minister of Interior further revealed that the ministry, through the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), established a Mining Marshal to sanitise the mining industry, where a lot of revenue is being lost illegally.

Consequently, over 2,125 illegal mining sites have been destroyed, and the NSCDC has trained over 10,000 Agro Rangers for the agriculture sector.

Agro Rangers are a specialised unit of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) tasked with protecting agricultural investments, resolving conflicts between farmers and herders, and ensuring the security of agricultural communities.

The Agro Rangers unit aims to safeguard farmlands, protect farmers from attacks, mediate conflicts between farmers and herders, and prevent the malicious destruction of farmlands.

The initiative is a partnership between the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

On internal security, the Minister disclosed that the administration of President Bola Tinubu has approved the training and proper equipment of paramilitary officers to enable them function properly and properly manage the nation's internal security which is their responsibility and not that of the military, stressing that the situation waa inherited from past governments which the incumbent administration is working hard to address.