Oshodi Open Door: Prison or Criminal Headquarters? Death Row Inmates Leave to Rob and Return Like VIPs -By John Egbeazien Oshodi

If you told someone in a developed country that prisoners—especially those on death row—were leaving prison at night to commit robberies and returning before morning roll call, they would laugh, call it impossible, and dismiss it as a poorly written movie script.

But this is not Hollywood. It is not Nollywood. This is not the plot of some over-the-top crime thriller created to shock an audience. This actually happened.

And it happened in a place called Nigeria, a country where laws exist on paper but crime thrives in practice, where criminals in maximum-security prisons can step out, commit violent crimes, and return without consequences, where the ridiculous is reality and the impossible is routine.

What should have sparked nationwide outrage has barely raised an eyebrow. The unbelievable has become ordinary, and what should be a national scandal is now just another forgotten headline in Nigeria’s long history of institutional failures.

A 100-Year-Old Prison System That Cannot Even Lock Up Criminals

Nigeria’s prison system has existed for over a century, yet today, it has degenerated into a laughingstock. A system that was designed to house, punish, and reform criminals has instead turned into a criminal enterprise, a place where prison officers have turned into facilitators of crime, where prison cells are merely resting points for convicts before they go out to commit more offenses.

In a desperate attempt to appear modern and progressive, the government decided to rebrand what was once called the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) into the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS)—as if a mere name change could erase decades of incompetence, mismanagement, and deep-rooted corruption. The reality is that nothing changed except the signboards, letterheads, and uniforms. The same corrupt system remains, the same compromised officers continue their dirty dealings, and now, prisoners don’t even need to escape anymore—they just step out when they feel like it and return when they’re done with their crimes.

How can a country claim to have modernized its correctional system when convicted criminals can leave prison, commit violent offenses, and return as if nothing happened? The Nigerian Correctional Service is not correcting anything. It has become a logistics network for crime, a well-oiled machine of bribery, negligence, and failure.

Prison Officials vs. Police: A Battle Over Criminals

When the police finally traced the crime to Okere Custodial Centre and arrived at the prison gates, they assumed it would be a straightforward process—after all, the suspects were already behind bars. What could be easier than arresting people who were technically already in custody?

But this is Nigeria, where logic rarely applies. Instead of simply handing over the criminals, prison officials refused to cooperate.

Yes, you read that correctly—the very people entrusted with keeping criminals locked up protected them instead.

Imagine being a police officer, standing outside a prison, begging correctional officers to release criminals who were already supposed to be serving their sentences.

Then came the next level of madness—the prison boss suddenly transferred all the officers at the facility and replaced them with new ones overnight. The move was deliberate. It was a cover-up strategy, a delaying tactic to frustrate police efforts and protect the criminals. The new officers conveniently acted confused, pretended to know nothing, and refused to release the remaining suspects to law enforcement.

At this point, it was no longer just corruption—it was an organized effort to obstruct justice, an institution-wide conspiracy to shield criminals.

This shameless abuse of power raises serious questions about who is really running Nigerian prisons. Who benefits from keeping these criminals in circulation? How many other death row inmates have been let out to commit crimes and returned without detection? If this scandalous operation had not been exposed, how long would it have continued?

A System That is Beyond Redemption—Time to Decentralize Nigeria’s Prisons

Nigeria’s prison system is broken beyond repair, and the centralized model under federal control is one of the biggest contributors to this national disgrace.

Under the current system, prisons are managed from Abuja, meaning all funding, decision-making, and administrative control come from a distant capital city that has no real connection to the unique security challenges of individual states.

This top-heavy structure has made oversight impossible, allowing corruption, inefficiency, and criminal collaboration to flourish. Prison officers answer to no one, and the distance between policymakers and prison management has made it easy for lawlessness to fester.

If Nigeria wants to have a functioning correctional system, it must decentralize the prison system and allow state governments to manage their own correctional facilities.

A state-controlled prison system would:

Ensure greater accountability, as state governments would directly oversee and manage the correctional facilities in their jurisdictions.

Allow for faster interventions, as local authorities would not need to wait for approval from Abuja to fix prison issues.

Improve funding, as states could allocate budgets specifically tailored to their prison needs rather than relying on a bloated federal bureaucracy that mismanages resources.

Ensure better monitoring of prison staff, reducing opportunities for bribery, corruption, and criminal collaboration.

Create policies that are responsive to local crime trends, rather than applying one-size-fits-all federal laws that do not work in practice.

A centralized prison system has failed. It is time for state governments to take control of their correctional services and implement real reforms.

The Reality—Nothing Will Change Without Immediate Action

In a normal country, this case would have resulted in mass resignations, immediate arrests of corrupt prison officials, and an emergency government response.

But this is Nigeria.

A panel will be set up to “investigate.”

A big government official will give a long speech about reforms.

A few weeks later, another scandal will dominate the news cycle.

The Urgent Need for Psychological and Institutional Reform for Correctional Staff

Prisons should be places of punishment and rehabilitation, not breeding grounds for corruption and organized crime. If Nigeria wants to build a correctional system that upholds justice, it must implement non-compromised psychological screening for all correctional staff before employment to ensure they possess the mental stability, ethical integrity, and resilience required for such a high-risk job. Regular mental health evaluations should be mandatory throughout their careers to detect signs of emotional distress, corruption vulnerability, or psychological breakdown that could compromise security.

Beyond psychological fitness, there must be strict oversight mechanisms to curb internal misconduct, as well as zero-tolerance policies with severe consequences for staff found aiding or colluding with criminals. A truly functional correctional system depends not only on physical security but on the mental and ethical strength of those entrusted with maintaining it. Without these reforms, Nigerian prisons will remain crime hubs rather than institutions of rehabilitation and justice.

And nothing will change.

The Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has already issued the expected response, promising that officers found guilty will be punished. But Nigerians have heard this line too many times to take it seriously. If the “full weight of the law” actually worked in this country, half of Nigeria’s political elite would be in jail.

This case is not just an isolated incident—it is a reflection of a justice system that has completely collapsed.

If convicted criminals can walk out of a maximum-security prison, commit violent robberies, and return like nothing happened, then Nigeria is not running a correctional system—it is running a crime syndicate under government management.

Until real reforms happen, Nigerian prisons will remain nothing more than crime hubs, where inmates run businesses, buy their freedom, and terrorize the public—all while technically “incarcerated.”

While the world reacts in disbelief, Nigerians will simply shrug, shake their heads, and say, “Na so we see am.”

And unless radical changes are made, we will keep witnessing this madness—one ridiculous headline at a time.

Oshodi Open Door, also known as Oshodi Open Door Public Training (OOPDT, pronounced opidt), is a public awareness initiative promoting transparency, accountability, and integrity in Africa through educational articles and resources at jos5930458@aol.com, and offers specialized Timely Response Solutions (TRS) training at minimal or no cost.

John Egbeazien Oshodi is an American psychologist, educator, and author. Born in Uromi, Edo State, Nigeria, he is the son of a 37-year veteran of the Nigeria Police Force. Professor Oshodi is an expert in cross-cultural psychology, forensic/clinical psychology, police and prison science, and social justice.

He has made significant contributions to forensic psychology, introducing it to Nigeria in 2011 through the National Universities Commission (NUC) and Nasarawa State University. Professor Oshodi has taught at several institutions, including Florida Memorial University, Florida International University, and Nova Southeastern University.

Currently, he serves as a government consultant for forensic-clinical psychological services in the USA and practices as a clinical and forensic psychologist. He also holds virtual faculty roles at Walden University and other institutions. Professor Oshodi has authored numerous publications and founded the Psychoafricalysis theory in psychology.