30-50% of offences don't warrant incarceration, says Tunji-Ojo

File photo: Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo

The Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has said that between 30 and 50 per cent of offences committed by inmates in correctional centres across Africa do not warrant incarceration.

Tunji-Ojo urged correctional authorities to critically assess the true state of congestion in their facilities.

He stated this on Wednesday in Abuja at the Regional Conference on the Classification of Prisoners and the Use of Technology in Prisons in Africa, jointly organised by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the African Correctional Services Association.

He challenged correctional authorities to ask themselves a fundamental question about the true nature of overcrowding in their facilities.