A report by the European Union Agency for Asylum has revealed that Nigeria’s custodial centres are battling “escalating security challenges.”

The report, sighted by Sunday PUNCH, was published in November 2025. It documented a decade-long pattern of prison escapes in the country, explaining why the custodial centres are confronting rising jailbreaks, citing persistent security lapses.

“Over the past decade, Nigeria has experienced a pattern of prison jailbreaks, resulting in thousands of inmates escaping correctional facilities nationwide,” the report noted.

Highlighting systemic weaknesses, the report cited overcrowding, structural deficiencies, and chronic underfunding as major contributors to the problem.

“One incident occurred in March 2025, when 12 inmates escaped from the Koton Karfe Medium Security Custodial Centre in Kogi State. Only five were recaptured.

“This marked the fourth jailbreak at this facility in 13 years, where nearly 700 inmates have fled, including about 100 freed during a 2012 Boko Haram attack,” it stated.

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Observers attribute the recurring breakouts to “security gaps, together with possible insider complicity, which exacerbate the prisons’ vulnerabilities, especially amid attacks by armed groups like Boko Haram.”

Beyond security concerns, the report said overcrowding and poor infrastructure continued to strain the country’s correctional system.

“The country’s more than 240 prisons currently house over 80,000 inmates, with two-thirds awaiting trial.

“The observers also point to systemic issues such as overcrowding, outdated infrastructure, poor inmate conditions, slow judicial processes, and widespread corruption,” the report said.

“International bodies have also criticised the state of Nigeria’s detention system,” it stated.

Following a September 2024 visit, the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture described conditions in detention centres as “abysmal,” citing inadequate food, healthcare, and sanitation.

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“Their assessment described conditions in most detention facilities as ‘abysmal.’ Additionally, Nigeria had not yet established a National Preventive Mechanism as required under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture, which Nigeria ratified in 2009.

“The Subcommittee called on Nigeria to urgently implement measures to prevent torture and ill-treatment, improve detention conditions—particularly in police stations and similar facilities—and enforce legal safeguards to end impunity for perpetrators of torture,” the report read.

The report also raised concerns over the continued use of the death penalty.

It added, “In Nigeria, the death penalty is a ‘lawful punishment’ imposed nationwide, including for offences that do not meet the threshold of ‘most serious crimes’ under international law.

“Although no executions have been carried out since 2016, courts across the country still regularly issue death sentences. In 2023, Nigerian courts issued over 246 new death sentences, raising the total number of individuals on death row to more than 3,413.”

In May 2024, the Senate proposed a bill to increase the maximum penalty for drug trafficking from life imprisonment to death, a move that has faced opposition from various stakeholders, including legislators, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime country representative, as well as activists and legal professionals.

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“Such a proposal has reignited debate over the continued use of the death penalty in the country, with some authorities questioning the sustainability of retaining capital punishment.

“Further, although legal provisions allow for commutation of sentences by governors or chief judges after extended incarceration, inconsistencies in application have left many inmates in legal limbo,” said the report.

The Nigerian Correctional Service revealed in July 2025 that the country had 3,833 inmates on death row.

The report further stated that the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has urged Nigeria to “impose a moratorium on executions, a stance supported by the European Union and United Nations.”

It added that the detention conditions remained “harsh,” falling short of United Nations minimum standards for prisoner treatment.

Media reports and information from the Nigerian Correctional Service website indicated that thousands of inmates have escaped from 13 custodial facilities between 2019 and 2025, including many awaiting trial for serious offences such as terrorism and armed robbery.

In response to the ongoing wave of jailbreaks that has plagued custodial centres nationwide over the past years, the Controller General of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Sylvester Nwakuche, recently vowed to enforce strict disciplinary action against any officers found to have been negligent.

A Nigerian man living in New Orleans, United States, believed to be mentally ill, has been arrested and taken into custody by the police after allegedly stabbing his father and two sisters in their home, leaving his father dead.

Authorities have charged Chukwuebuka Eweni, 29, with one count of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted second-degree murder.

According to reports, the deceased, identified as Samuel Eweni, 75, was a computer science professor at Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO). Police said he was killed in a residence on Pebble Drive in New Orleans East on Tuesday night, while two female relatives were also stabbed. One of the women has been released from hospital care, while the other remains under treatment and is expected to survive.

US news platforms, which quoted family members, reported that Chukwuebuka had long struggled with mental illness but had never previously been violent. They described the evening of the attack as ordinary before the incident occurred and said they are unsure what triggered it.

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After the stabbings, Chukwuebuka reportedly went to New Orleans East Hospital, where he often sought mental health support. Without knowledge of the crime, the hospital transferred him to a facility in Jefferson Parish, where he was located and arrested by authorities on Wednesday morning.

SUNO released a statement mourning the loss of Samuel Eweni. “Dr Eweni was more than an educator—he was a mentor and a guiding light to so many of our students,” said Dr Joseph Bouie Jr., Chancellor of Southern University at New Orleans.

“His contributions to the College of Business and Public Administration and to the university’s mission of transforming lives through education will be remembered and celebrated. Our hearts are with his family, friends, and colleagues during this deeply difficult time.”

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Last month, a 36-year-old Nigerian woman, Gbemisola Akayinode, was arrested and charged with felony murder following the death of her nine-year-old daughter, Oluwasikemi, who succumbed to hyperthermia after being left in a vehicle for several hours in Texas.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez confirmed the arrest on 17 October, stating that the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences ruled the child’s death a homicide “Arrest update: today, HCSO Texas Homicide Detectives and our Violent Criminal Apprehension Team (VCAT) arrested Gbemisola G. Akayinode for the murder of her nine-year-old daughter, Oluwasikemi Akayinode. The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences ruled the death a homicide as a result of hyperthermia,” Sheriff Gonzalez wrote on X.

According to court documents, the incident occurred on 1 July at an industrial complex on Mayo Shell Road in Galena Park, near Houston. Akayinode reportedly left her daughter in the car while she attended work at a manufacturing plant. The child remained inside the vehicle for over eight hours on a day when temperatures reached 99 degrees Fahrenheit.

Investigators said that Akayinode had left the child with food, ice cubes, water, a rechargeable fan, and melatonin to sleep. She lowered the car’s rear windows partially and covered the front windscreen, making it difficult for passersby to see inside.

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When Akayinode returned around 1:53 p.m., she found her daughter unresponsive and called for help. Despite attempts at CPR, the child was pronounced dead at LBJ Hospital.

Court records indicate that Akayinode had previously taken her daughter to work with her, citing a lack of funds for day care, though investigators discovered that her foreman had been covering child care costs.

She also reportedly blamed prescription medicine for her child’s death while admitting to giving her melatonin the night before and on the morning of the incident.

US lawmakers have called for the Trump administration to respond to reporting that Chinese firms are helping Iran rebuild its ballistic missile program in defiance of United Nations sanctions.

The call, from Representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi and Joe Courtney, follows CNN reporting last month detailing what Western intelligence sources said were several shipments of sodium perchlorate, a missile propellant precursor, from China to Iran since the end of September.

These shipments are “indispensable to Tehran’s efforts to rebuild its ballistic missile arsenal following its 12-day war with Israel last summer,” the congressmen wrote in a letter to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Central Intelligence Agency director John Ratcliffe.

“Beijing’s support for Tehran’s rearmament is deeply concerning and provides yet another example of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) willingness to abet authoritarian aggression from Europe to the Middle East,” they said.

According to CNN’s reporting, European intelligence sources say 2,000 tons of sodium perchlorate, the main precursor in the production of the solid propellant that powers Iran’s mid-range conventional missiles, have arrived from China to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas between late September and mid-October. The chemicals were bought by Iran from Chinese suppliers, the sources say.

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The deliveries, which analysts say could provide enough chemical for roughly 500 ballistic missiles, appear to show Iran is stepping up the rebuilding of its missile program, which was depleted by the conflict with Israel in June.

They also come as there has been increased concern in Washington about potential emerging coordination between China, Iran, Russia and North Korea. US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met last month for talks that resulted in an economic truce de-escalating their trade war.

“Beijing’s latest shipments of these critical chemical precursors indicate that US actions to date have failed to deter it from supporting Tehran’s procurement of offensive military capabilities,” Krishnamoorthi, who is the ranking member of the House Select Committee on the CCP, and Courtney, ranking member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Seapower and Projection Forces, wrote in their letter.

Beijing’s support “not only increases Iran’s threat to its neighbors but also assists Russia and pro-Iranian proxy groups like the Houthis whose missile programs Iran has previously supported,” the Congressmen said.

The shipments also “contravene sanctions the United Nations reinstated in September that prohibit international support for Iran’s ballistic missile program and development of nuclear weapons delivery systems,” they added.

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Krishnamoorthi and Courtney called for the Trump administration to explain what actions it was taking to “respond to the PRC’s (People’s Republic of China) continuing support to Iran’s ballistic missile program,” including in coordination with US allies and partners.

The Trump administration in April announced sanctions on a dozen entities and individuals based in Iran and China for their role procuring ballistic missile propellant ingredients on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Last month, more-than-a-decade-old UN sanctions on Tehran were restored by a so-called snapback mechanism – a provision for Iranian breaches of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal to monitor its nuclear program.

Under the sanctions re-imposed last month, Iran shall not undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. UN member states must also prevent the provision to Iran of materials that could contribute to the country’s development of a nuclear weapons delivery system, which experts say could include ballistic missiles.

States are also required to prevent the provision to Iran of assistance in the manufacture of arms.

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While the shipped substance – sodium perchlorate – is not specifically named in UN documents on materials banned for export to Iran, it is a direct precursor of ammonium perchlorate, a listed and prohibited oxidizer used in ballistic missiles.

China and Iran
Experts say that the sanctions’ failure to explicitly prohibit the chemical may leave China room to argue that it is not in violation of any UN ban. China, along with Russia, opposed the reimposition of the UN sanctions, saying it undermines efforts for a “diplomatic settlement of the Iranian nuclear issue,” and may not see it bound by those rules, as such.

In response to a question from CNN last month about the recent shipments, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that while he “not familiar with the specific situation,” China has “consistently implemented export controls on dual-use items in accordance with its international obligations and domestic laws and regulations.”

“We want to emphasize that China is committed to peacefully resolving the Iranian nuclear issue through political and diplomatic means and opposes sanctions and pressure,” the spokesperson said.

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CNN reporting last month followed the journeys of several cargo ships identified by intelligence sources as being involved in the latest deliveries of sodium perchlorate from Chinese ports to Iran, using ship tracking data and the social media of their crew.

Several of the cargo ships and Chinese entities involved are under sanctions from the United States.

Some of those vessels appear to have gone back and forth several times between China and Iran since the end of April. The sources say their crew seem to be employed by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines and their regular social media posts provide a trail of their stops on the China to Iran journey.

Similar shipments had previously been reported, and entities in China, long a diplomatic and economic ally of Iran, are also known to use a network of vessels to filter US-sanctioned Iranian oil to the country.