Custodial facilities around the country should be guarded by men of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), who are not hesitant to shoot to kill criminals, the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, has said.
Aregbesola said only personnel of the NCoS who are courageous enough to kill criminals should be deployed to custodial facilities.
He spoke at the unveiling of the new service logo and uniforms and the commissioning of a new staff quarters ICT infrastructure and operational vehicles at the Service headquarters on Monday.
Twenty-five personnel, who displayed gallantry to repel a bandits’ attack on a custodial facility in Niger State, were rewarded by the minister at the event.
Aregbesola, while commending the 25 personnel for their act of gallantry, expressed dismay that some personnel in other custodial centres had cowered when faced with attacks by criminals.
He reiterated that custodial centres were now red zones, charging personnel to stand up to the occasion and shoot to kill whenever an intruder attempted an attack.
“Riffles are not for play, they are meant to kill criminals. Any officer that can not shoot to kill, any lilly-liver officer that cannot shoot on the head should be trained or replaced.
“Criminals should not sustain injuries. Those people who can not shoot to kill, if you don’t want to dismiss them, redeploy them to female prisons.
“People who will be in maximum and medium custodial centres must be tough. We have had too many embarrassing attacks and we must put a stop to it,” he said.
The Minister, who lamented that most of the hoodlums causing havoc in the eastern part of the country were some of the escapees from the custodial centres in Imo State, said anybody who tried to attack any custodial centre should pay the supreme price going forward.
He said the just commissioned ICT centre at the Service headquarters will aid the real-time monitoring of activities at the custodial centres across the country from the control room.
Aregbesola also said monitoring gadgets had been installed in the custodial centres to improve security at the centres.