This rot in our correctional centres should be urgently addressed by the Minister of Interior and all the officials involved should be seriously reprimanded. The relevant committees in the National Assembly should also take up this matter. Correctional centres are supposed to reform convicts so that they can be reabsorbed into the society, but what we have now are correctional centres that encourage convicts to become more hardened and sophisticated in their criminal activities…
When you think you have seen it all in our country Nigeria, you will suddenly realise you have not seen anything. Many mind boggling security issues are happening in Nigeria and it is disheartening. Apart from the issue of kidnapping, banditry, insurgency, farmers/ herders clash, there is a new wave of subtle insecurity directed against individuals especially those considered as politically exposed persons, businessmen and very important personalities (VIP). The new method is that a strange mobile number will call a politically exposed person in the middle of night to threaten him or her that he is an assassin sent to kill and wipe out his or her family, except such a VIP is ready to pay to avert such.
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What prompted this article was my personal experience and those of my colleagues who received the same threatening phone call between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. on Tuesday, 11 November. On Monday night, I took some drugs because of neck pain, which made me sleep so soundly that I didn’t hear my phone ring around 2.17 a.m the following morning. When I finally woke up around 6.30 a.m., I was curious to know who called me at that hour of the night. The number, 09129899707, was not on my contact list, so I returned the call. A man with a gruffy voice picked it and when I asked who was speaking, instead of answering, he asked me if he was speaking with Hon. Hakeem Jamiu, and when I said in the affirmative, he introduced himself as General West and that I should not bother about where he is calling from. He went further in Yoruba, “won ran wa si e ni. Won ti sanwo emi e. Won ni ka wa pa e ati iyawo ati omo. So ti oo ba fe ka pa e, wa sanwo ni o.” The meaning of this is that he is an assassin who some unknown people have sent to kill me, my wife and children, and he and his gang would carry this out unless I am ready to pay them. I simply cut him off the phone and blocked his number immediately, although I was a bit worried. My wife, who was beside me, was on another call, so she did not follow the conversation well, but only heard when I asked him to get off my phone, which made her ask who that was. I simply told her it was some scammer.
I was part of a joint Security and Local Government Committee meeting at the House of Assembly by 10.00 a.m. on the same Tuesday to review the security situation in Ekiti State, which still remains the safest state in the country, despite pockets of kidnappings recently. Listening to briefings from our security agents gave me hope that they are capable of combating insecurity in the state if the right weapons and other logistics are made available to them. They all agreed that Governor Oyebanji is doing well in this area but they needed more support because the bandits are not relenting and are getting more emboldened by the day.
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The number, 09129899707, was not on my contact list, so I returned the call. A man with a gruffy voice picked it and when I asked who was speaking, instead of answering, he asked me if he was speaking with Hon. Hakeem Jamiu, and when I said in the affirmative, he introduced himself as General West and that I should not bother about where he is calling from. He went further in Yoruba, “won ran wa si e ni. Won ti sanwo emi e. Won ni ka wa pa e ati iyawo ati omo. So ti oo ba fe ka pa e, wa sanwo ni o.”
It was at the Committee meeting that I realised that the same number that called me at 2.17 a.m. had also called about 10 of my colleagues about the same time, with the same life-threatening message of wiping them and their family out, except they pay some for of ransom. In fact, one of my colleagues told the heads of the security agencies present that when he received the call, the same General West told him that his men had already surrounded his building, and were waiting to force their way in. My colleague told General West that he would come and open the door and gate, that he should not bother forcing his way in, and that he was battle ready for them. When my colleague opened his door and came out into his compound, he didn’t see anybody and General West had dropped the call! Other colleagues relayed the same experience about the phone call from General West and the threat to their lives, except they pay some ransom. The caller told another colleague that he has been paid to kidnap all members of his family, except he is prepared to pay five million naira to stop this. When my colleague told him he had no such money, he sent him a WhatsApp video of kidnapped victims who were killed, butchered and dismembered. He asked my friend if he wanted the same fate to befall his family. He is still demanding the ransom as I write. I also learnt from the meeting that an old retiree sold her property to pay these criminals, so that they would spare the life of her only son.
The security chiefs present at the meeting, from the police, State Security Service (SSS), Amotekun corps, Vigilante and Peace Corps, took the number and tracked it. Lo and behold, it was traced to an inmate at Kirikiri Maximum Correctional Centre. This raises the question about the paradox of the name, “Correctional Centre.” How can a supposedly correctional centre be a beehive of a new wave of criminal activities from the same convicts who are supposed to be undergoing reformation? Is the use of telephone allowed in correctional centres? To the best of my knowledge, the Nigerian Correctional Service Act 2019 prohibits the use of mobile phones by inmates or has this changed? So, who provides inmates with telephones which they now use to threaten unsuspecting politically exposed people and other important personalities in our society? Is General West and his gang acting alone without the active connivance of Kirikiri Correctional Centre officials? When the unsuspecting victims whose families they have threatened to wipe out or kidnap pay these ransom sums, into which account do the victims pay? Who gave General West, an inmate in Kirikiri Correctional Centre, my phone number and those of my colleagues in the Ekiti State House of Assembly? Who are his collaborators in Ekiti State? This is not to say that such life-threatening calls only emanates from correctional centres, but for now it was traceable to the Kirikiri Correctional Centre and there have been other similar life-threatening calls traceable to other correctional centres across the country.
One of the security chiefs present related the scary experience of a very dangerous criminal he arrested and prosecuted and who was sent to prison custody. The security chief was more than embarrassed when the criminal sent a video message of the sumptuous meal he was enjoying in prison and threatened the security chief that he would soon be released and would come after him and his family. Now the question is: Who gave such a dangerous criminal the phone and freedom to be threatening the law officer who prosecuted him?
So many revelations came up at the meeting with the security agents, which are however not entirely new because I have also been aware through research, about the unbelievable tales from Nigeria correctional centres nationwide. There are so many General Wests in our correctional centres across the country and they operate with the active connivance of prison officials. There are so many stories of the exchange of prisoners, whereby a rich convict can pay for somebody to serve his prison term for him and such convict would have also paid the prison officials heavily. I didn’t believe all these stories before, but with the call of General West, an inmate of Kirikiri Correctional Centre, threatening us in Ekiti, nothing is impossible in our correctional centres. One of the security chiefs present related the scary experience of a very dangerous criminal he arrested and prosecuted and who was sent to prison custody. The security chief was more than embarrassed when the criminal sent a video message of the sumptuous meal he was enjoying in prison and threatened the security chief that he would soon be released and would come after him and his family. Now the question is: Who gave such a dangerous criminal the phone and freedom to be threatening the law officer who prosecuted him? Will that not dampen the morale of other courageous officers? It is now glaring that there are VIP criminals who are above the law in our correctional centres, and a searchlight should be beamed on this centres as another quiet unnoticeable source of insecurity? Our country is actually under siege and this is the kind of reports that give President Trump the impetus to threaten us with military invasion.
This rot in our correctional centres should be urgently addressed by the Minister of Interior and all the officials involved should be seriously reprimanded. The relevant committees in the National Assembly should also take up this matter. Correctional centres are supposed to reform convicts so that they can be reabsorbed into the society, but what we have now are correctional centres that encourage convicts to become more hardened and sophisticated in their criminal activities and this is definitely with the covert support of some unscrupulous prison officials. Imagine what would happen to an hypertensive man who received a call at 2.00 a.m. that assassins have surrounded his house to wipe off his entire family! What a country!
Hakeem Jamiu, the former Deputy Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly, writes from Ado Ekiti.
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