Correctional Service officers deny borrowing money from inmates

<p>The management of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has dismissed as false and unfounded claims that its personnel were collecting loans from inmates of custodial centres.</p>, <p>NCoS Public Relations Officer, Assistant Comptroller of Corrections Abubakar Umar, dismissed the claim in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.</p>, <p>According to him, NCoS personnel have more credible sources for obtaining loan facilities.</p>, <p>Umar also said that the claim made by online media, insinuating that the personnel were being paid less salaries than their counterparts in other paramilitary services in the Ministry of Interior, was also false.</p>, <p>NAN gathered that a correctional officer was reported to have written to President Bola Tinubu to complain about alleged corruption and poor remuneration in the service.</p>, <p>The so-called aggrieved personnel claimed that they were being poorly paid and treated unfairly unlike their colleagues in other services under ministry.</p>, <p>According to the faceless officer, the situation had forced some of the personnel to now depend on inmates to feed their families.</p>, <p>Umar, however, dismissed the allegations, saying that those behind it wanted to distract the NCoS from the current reforms and transformations being undertaken by the management headed by Comptroller General Haliru Nababa.</p>, <p>He said it was important to set the records straight and clear whatever doubts the malicious report would have created.</p>, <p>Umar explained that the salaries of officers and men of the NCoS are fixed by the Revenue Mobilisation, Salaries and Wages Commission, just like other paramilitary services under the ministry.</p>, <p>“It is, therefore, ridiculous to say that staff of the NCoS receive less than their counterparts in other services in the Ministry of Interior.</p>, <p>“Secondly, the infantile authors should know that salaries are paid directly to beneficiaries’ accounts, therefore, no chief executive, including the Comptroller