The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) is an arm of the Criminal Justice System supervised by the Ministry of Interior.
The “Prisons Decree, No. 9 of 1972, originally named it “Nigerian Prisons Service, NPS,” until the change in name to Nigerian Correctional Service, through the NCoS Act of 2019, to ideologically, refocus the institution on CORRECTION OF DEFIANT BEHAVIOUR.
The task of instilling that needed change as vested on the “Controller General” unfortunately entered the hands of a deft manipulator, Ahmed Ja’afaru.
With more than 80,000 inmates in 245 custodial centres, Ahmed did nothing to give the service that impetus to pursue its mandate, instead, it is revealed that this individual has worked his way to become the Lord of the Nigerian Correctional in order to dominate the leaders of the institution before and after him.
It is heart breaking to hear officers in low and high place describe him as dreaded, devilishly skilled in the art of manipulation and perfected the corrupt process of amassing the means of the organization and apply it to always have his way.
To some of those who work in the NCoS, especially, those victims of his game of “scheming” and “sacked” from the service, he is the corrupt and incorrigible Fuhrer of the correctional service.
The name, Ahmed Jaafaru has overshadowed his predecessor such as Abraham Akpe, mni, Sola Ogundipe, mni, Zakari Ibrahim, mni, Dr Peter Ezinwa Ekpendu, mni, Ag CGC Aminu Sule, mni and Ag. CGC Emmanuel Ogundipu, mni, not for good reasons but for his despotic capacity to promote mediocrity and nepotism above excellence and national cohesion in security Service.
Note that only Ja’afaru pride himself with only Bachelor of Arts Degree in History without further academic development, yet, he is listed along with his predecessors who are Ph.D holders and eminent graduates of the Prestigious Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru.
Ahmed Jaafaru is one of the opportunists with no spectacular history. Information hold it that he hails from Jega town in Kebbi State but originally migrated from Niger where his ethnic group of BOGOBIRI are a major tribe. Like many other nomadic herders, Ja’afarus came to Nigeria in search of greener pasture in early 19th century and settled in the border village of Jega where he enjoyed free education through the assimilation policy of Northern Nigeria.
He eventually obtained a Bachelor of Education in History which entitled him to teach at the College of Education, Sokoto before joining the Nigerian Prisons Service in early 1990s.
The switch gave Jaafaru an advantage as most prison officers from the Northern parts of Nigeria at that time lacked higher educational qualifications. He maintained low profile, working mostly between Kebbi and Sokoto States with short stints at Bauchi, Lagos and Kano Prisons Commands before Sola Ogundipe mni, guided by his PSO, Yusuf Kasali, posted him to be ACG in charge of Administration and Supply in 2011.
Ja’afaru, then, met a corrupt and dashing young woman, Maurelyn Melchizedek and made her to be in charge of Nominal Rolls, though, she knew next to nothing in administration. With such, Ja’afaru began a dreaded record manipulation and document mutilation to get him more years in Service.
He was by record supposed to retire on 21st July, 2016, but that was when the system was turned upside down and Ja’afaru Ahmed stole the seat of CGC given to Emmanuel Ogundipe, mni, who reigned just six days after his confirmation.
On assumption of office, Ja’afaru felt unsecured as he had just few months to be in office, so, first he secured additional through years through the manipulation of his records with the help of Maurelyn to the chagrin of his colleagues who got retirement letters after 35 years of service.
On noticing the reactions from his colleagues, Ja’afaru had to play a smart one and through Maurelyn, changed the records of anyone who was identified to be nosy and forcefully retired them
It has been revealed that Jaafaru schemed his way to become the Controller-General of NCoS in 2016 through the help of Zakari Ibrahim, retired Controller-General and Dr Ezinwa P. Ekpendu, another retired controller-General of NCos.
Ja’afaru, having exhausted the dubious two years in 2019, had become a “Fuhrer” ominous structures in the Federal Government which he paid his way to acquire. On a clandestine move, he used the corrupt structure to bag additional 2 years of extension of his Service that kept him as CGC until 2021.
This is the method of the German dictator, Adolf Hitler, the most notorious man that ever lived. Adolf Hitler killed opponents at will, he maimed on the basis of his hatred for Semitism and overturned national governments to satisfy his territorial ambition, hence he emerged with nick name FUHRER at the peak of the world war which he dragged the global community into.
According to description by a great analyst on the similarity between Ja’afaru Ahmed and Hitler, the Second world war broke out as a result of Hitler’s personal ambition until the West intervened using the atomic bomb, nicknamed “LITTLE BOY” to quiet Hitler’s radicalized soldiers on 6th August, 1945 at a place in Japan called Hiroshima.
Like the FUHRER OF GERMANY, Ja’afaru migrated from Niger Republic with his parents to settle in the border town of Jega, just as Hitler originally hail from Austria and migrated to Germany. Hitler won the heart of Germans through his oratory power, while Ja’afaru used the naivety of Nigerians to claim the title of CORRECTIONAL FUHRER! Since 2010 to 2015 Ja’afaru’s peers retired from government service and those immediately behind his generation were being shut out of circulation.
After foisting himself as Controller General of Corrections, CGC, by 2021, Ja’afaru had enjoyed more than five illegitimate years as Controller General, whereas he ought to have retired 5 years earlier. Within these five agonizing years of nepotism and religious bigotry Ja’afaru looted, and removed his perceived enemies in the Service, including, Andy Barka, Nuhu Zuru, Chuks Afujue, among others.
He played dangerous games to remain in power after 2021 but was stopped by a wave of brilliant generation of younger officers who have now become Generals and ready to succeed him in correctional administration.
In anger, he summarily retired eight of these top, first class Assistant Controller-Generals who were competently set to take charge of the Nigerian Correctional Service.
As a last resort for him to maintain relevance in NCoS, Jaafaru used the Correctional Service slush funds, in accounts like the Cooperative Society (COCOS) Funds, the huge moneys stashed in the Health Insurance Fund being deducted monthly from staff salaries called the CIWIS, and cutting of all staff emoluments by nearly half monthly to buy his way and installed his cousin, Haliru Nababa as CGC in 2021.
Haliru Nababa, is described by those who have come across him as incompetent, and a man who cannot read or communicate Service problems, needs and mitigation measures for possible assistance. The consequence of putting this misfit “placeholder” for Ja’afaru, is that the Service have degenerated.
For example, all senior Controllers, Assistant Controllers -General and Deputy Controllers General have to go through their subordinate called Salisu Mamman who is planted by Ja’afaru to administer the NCoS since Nababa is grossly incompetent.
In fact, for nearly 3 years after retirement and foisting of Nababa Haliru, the surrogate have never hidden the fact that he depends solely on his godfather, Ja’afaru to take any decision. It is common knowledge that Ja’afaru sneaks into National Headquarters of the NCoS at late hours for the past three years, both at night and weekends to treat files for Nababa. The last three years have been hellish for average NCoS personnel. Their image, glory, morale, self esteem and integrity have never been broken so low due to sheer act of nepotism and incompetence of a General on seat of power
Apart from his inability to add value to the activities of NCoS, Nababa in demonstration of incapacity, have inadvertently push away development partners such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The ICRC operates under international code and ordinance with organizations with clear focus on achieving strategic mandate but the interference of Nababa Sokoto mafia masterminded by Ja’afaru uprooted the structure of NCoS partnership with the ICRC and transferred the key actors working in the partnership programme. They denied ICRC access to make legitimate visit to assess inmates treatment because of the poor feeding and terrible state of drug supply to inmates.
Since Nababa took over, and Maurelyn Melchizedek appointed as DCG Health, drug supply have dried up in the clinics. Doctors have resigned and medical personnel not employed to replace the ones who resigned. Health services has now being commercialized and nothing is done to involve private partners into health management of the NCoS.
Maurelyn have taken over the Nigerian Correctional Wives Association (NICOWA), while she is neither a registered member nor is she a correctional staff wife. Her motivation is simple: the Schools built through the hard work of patriotic staff and officers wives is now her looting ground. Also, the water front in Kirikiri generates close to N100m per annum to NICOWA which they use to intervene in women and children development and education, but Maurelyn and her boss, Ja’afaru, chose to hijack the process and transfer the officers who initiated this project under works and logistics department so as to steal all the money. As at today, no single structure is built besides the shopping mall built for Hajiya Gwama in Kebbi city and Zuru town as her retirement gift. Maurelyn is building another personal property in Sokoto for Nababa wives! It is simply a rotten system we are discussing about here. And the masterminded is Ahmed Ja’afaru
Being the corrupt captain of the Nigerian Correctional Service, that he is, Ahmed Ja’afaru moved Salisu Mamman, his nephew from CIWIS, one of the cash cows for Ja’afaru, to be the Principal Staff Officer (PSO) to Nababa so as to ensure that the Controller-General at all times carry out his directives.
Salisu was ordered to foist a trusted looter in CIWIS and so, in turn, like his benefactor, Salisu adopted a lady who was simply identified as Barrister Hanatu as his successor in CIWIS. That makes correctional administration a complete family affair.
While they formed a back bone of impenetrable looting machine, nobody other than Maurelyn, Lydia Abraham and officers from North West are given fair opportunity to hold juicy positions in the Service.
Ahmed Ja’afaru have a devilish ambition to keep controlling the fortunes of the NCoS. To achieve that aim, he fixed his weak apologist, Maurelin Melchizedek as DCG, Health even when it was obvious that she could not perform the task. The appointment was to reward Maurelin for maintaining faith with his record falsification project between 2016 and 2021. Within this period, Maurelin was foisted as Direct Contract Officer and at the same time, she was in charge of the notorious Nominal Roll Office just to protect the corrupt data of her master, Ja’afaru and to manipulate it and use it to ease any opponent out of the Service.
Not satisfied with the structure that he had put in place, Ahmed Jaafaru extended his tentacles of control to the Civil Defense, Corrections, FIRE and Immigration Services Board to further his evil power machinery. In early 2023 a highly efficient woman who was Secretary of the Board died mysteriously and Jaafaru quickly rushed in to grab the vacant position even when the post is traditionally for serving Director deployed from the Head of Service of the Federation. How Ja’afaru became the Secretary of the Board remain a thing of worry for the administration of President Ahmed Bola Tinibu and security stakeholders in general.
The Secretary is the least in order of protocol of the Board because he is a “Director” in the eyes of the law establishing the Board. Secondly, nobody will ever imagine that a retired CGC will accept to take a position where he would be taking notes in Board meeting for his subordinates like Controller GENERALS of Agencies who were at most Deputy Controllers in 2016 when Ja’afaru became Controller-General! Thirdly, it is argued that even if the position of Secretary were to be for retired CGC, Ja’afaru should have emulated the Police Service Commission where the most senior IG seat for a term before the next senior IG comes in.
Determined to be the sole administrator of the Correctional Service and obviously afraid that his records would be made public, Ahmed Ja’afaru could take any position to remain in charge. It is being speculated that Ja’afaru is a hatchet axe foisted by Malami, Aregbesola and the hardliners of the Conservative North to ensure that Bola Tinibu’s regime does not enjoy internal security harmony.
The second reason why Jaafaru took a far junior appointment to serve his subordinates is to cover his tracks. Ja’afaru was becoming insecure with those persons in the Board who cleaned up his record for him to get two fraudulent years to help him remain in Service and become CGC in 2016. None of those officers who helped him are in the Board because Ja’afaru ensured that they were sent to other Ministries. However, he needed to come in to clean any other trace of his illegal and corrupt practices as they will hunt his political ambition.
Thirdly, Ja’afaru has unfinished business with the Nigerian Correctional Service. He is aware that a generation of correctional officers whom he has oppressed for almost a decade has emerged. As Board Secretary, he arranges with Nababa to list out potential threats to his preferred surrogates and recommend them for retirement under thumb up allegations. He in turn, would write to the CGC conveying approval for retirement of the listed men without charge or evidence of misconduct. This agenda has surfaced already and there is a lot of outcry from the NCoS to the National Assembly and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation for intervention on these acts of impunity.
Fourthly, Ja’afaru has spent his loot in the NCoS in sponsoring people for political positions during the 2023 general elections and need to take a place of relevance in order to drain the resources of correctional and other agencies by intimidation and psychological posture of invisibility. This point also played out when the government of President Bola Tinibu dissolved the Boards of Parastatals, Ministries and Agencies but Ja’afaru declined to leave office. He wrote to SGF for exemption but no waiver was given. He remained in office and conducted interview for the Agencies in the absence of Minister or Board members. He later wrote without Ministerial approval for extension of appointments that were not granted by SGF in the first place.
Finally, Ja’afaru’s motive of grabbing the lowly position of Secretary of CDCFIB is for him to put the CGC under his arm and continue the loot of CoCoS using the ACG Lydia Abraham. Lydia and Maurelin are rewarded with promotions for helping Ja’afaru to loot the common patrimony of the NCoS. Till date no staff gets any kobo from the investments of CoCoS. Instead, they build estates for Jaafaru in Kuje and deny legitimate officers real allocation of the estate buildings.
Ahmed Ja’afaru is an enigma in the act of deception and he is now on a vindictive mission to get Correctional Officers who dared to oppose him out of service.
The way out has come.
As Fuhrer Adolf Hitler was brought to an end by the WEST, so also it is believed that the Government of Ahmed Bola Tinubu has come to stop Ja’afaru from further making the Correctional Service his personal estate. Ja’afaru is over 70 years old and his actions have made partners like the Red Cross to be withdrawing their activities in Nigeria.
Time to act is now, the Correctional Service was established to serve humanity and not the insatiable greed of an individual.
The Minister of Interior should ask questions about how Ja’afaru Ahmed manipulated his way from the high position of Controller-General to Secretary of CDCFIB and for scheming out promising and creative officers out of the Service of the NCoS.
Ja’afaru should be asked in specific terms what his interest is in his hurried conduct of promotion exams while there was no Board to direct him.
Ja’afaru should tell the Nigerians why he forced officers to write memos against his perceived enemies in order to get them out of service.
Ja’afaru should state his interest in CoCoS and who has been appointing the management of CoCoS three years after his retirement.
Ja’afaru should explain why in a regimental organization, and from his time as CGC to present day leadership, every key position is held by his family members and friends.
Let Ja’afaru answer to the allegation of falsification of his records before he became CGC in 2016.
Let Ja’afaru produce his Gazette publication as at 1998 to 2000.
Ja’afaru should explain why Maurelin Melchizedek has been holding Nominal Roll Office to ransom by changing information of any officer who is not in the good books of Ja’afaru.
Ja’afaru should explain why Salisu, Nababa and Maurelin have chosen to make the NCoS private property and render it unproductive.
Finally, Ja’afaru should be asked to answer why Tsalha Abubakar whose carelessness and gross misconduct led to jail break when he was in charge of MSCC, Minna was rewarded and promoted to Controller and set up in Pension Office to recommend the retirement of good and unblemished officers. In whose interest was the jail break?
The Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, should investigate and prosecute Ahmed Ja’afaru and set example that nobody is above the law and the Correctional Service can be sanitized.
The Minister should appoint an acting CGC to replace Haliru Nababa on the grounds of conspiracy and gross misconduct of nepotism and distortion of records of innocent personnel of the NCoS.
Abubakar A.
