Death Row TikTok Stream Triggers Prison Shake-Up
Correctional authorities in Abuja moved swiftly this week after video of a condemned prisoner broadcasting live on TikTok from a custodial centre in Abeokuta spread across Nigerian social media, forcing the removal of the officer in charge of the facility and reopening a long running debate about who really controls the country’s prisons.
The Nigerian Correctional Service removed the Officer in Charge of the Ibara Medium Custodial Centre in Abeokuta, Ogun State, and redeployed two other principal officers following the breach. In a statement issued on Thursday by the Service Public Relations Officer, Chief Superintendent of Corrections Jane Osuji, the Service said the Controller General of Corrections, Sylvester Ndidi Nwakuche, ordered the removals to guarantee a transparent and impartial investigation.
“Preliminary findings confirmed that the inmate was in unlawful possession of a prohibited mobile phone, which he used to access social media while in lawful custody,” the statement read. The Service said the device has since been recovered during a search operation and secured as an exhibit, while the inmate has been moved to another facility under enhanced security pending the conclusion of investigations. The Service stressed that the removals were administrative measures and should not be read as a final determination of culpability.
The NCoS statement followed an investigation published on August 1, 2026 by Nigerian Tribune and Premium Times under the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development’s Tech Justice and Platform Accountability Project. That report identified the inmate as Elijah Oyebode, sentenced to death by hanging in 2019 by Justice S. O. Falola of the Osun State High Court over the December 22, 2016 killing of Rofiat Adebisi, a final year student of Osun State University’s Ipetu Ijesha campus, in proceedings filed as Suit No. HIK/6C/2017. The court held that medical evidence showed the victim died of cardiac arrest caused by suffocation through strangulation, and rejected the accused person’s denial at trial after he had given conflicting accounts to investigators.
According to the investigation, Oyebode maintained at least two TikTok accounts, one of which, operating under the handle @ayola.oluwafu, reached Level 20 gifting status, a threshold that requires substantial financial activity on the platform. A second account, identified through forensic analysis of TikTok Snowflake IDs and witness testimony, was used to impersonate Omolola Awoyele, a TikTok Live host and activist, who said he later apologised and edited the account. A check by the Tribune on Tuesday, August 4, 2026 showed that the primary account had disappeared from the platform, though the publication said it could not establish whether it was taken down by TikTok, by prison authorities or by the inmate himself.
During a livestream on April 16, 2026 monitored by Saturday Tribune, the inmate claimed that phones circulate widely inside the facility. “An individual may be in possession of two to three phones,” he said, adding that “Facebook and TikTok are full of prisoners.” He alleged that officers collect devices at the tarmac and smuggle them in, that other officers then seize and ransom the same phones, and that drugs move through similar channels. He also claimed that wealthy condemned inmates are escorted out to supervise private projects. Those allegations remain untested and have not been confirmed by any court or official inquiry. On his earnings, he said money reached him from viewers and that a bet he won the previous month was ₦85,000.
The Nigerian Correctional Service Act 2019 provides that any officer who procures or facilitates the use of communication devices for an inmate commits an offence punishable under Section 29(1)(c) by a fine of up to ₦3,000,000, imprisonment of up to three years, or both, while Section 29(1)(a) prescribes up to 12 months imprisonment and a ₦1,000,000 fine for smuggling drugs into a facility. Section 32(4)(b) further provides that a supervising officer shall be sanctioned where negligence is proven, and Section 36(1) creates grounds for prosecution for neglect of public duty.
The breach lands on a system already under visible strain. Nwakuche told the House of Representatives Committee on Reformatory Institutions in February 2026 that the inmate population stood at 80,812 as of February 9, comprising 51,955 awaiting trial and 24,913 convicted, with 3,850 in other categories of detention. Against an official design capacity of 50,153, that places occupancy at roughly 161 per cent. The Service reported a staff strength of 33,024 and told lawmakers that of ₦14.50bn appropriated for capital projects in 2025, only ₦3.22bn, or 22.2 per cent, was released and utilised.
Death row itself is expanding rather than clearing. Official prison data cited in July 2025 put the death row population at 3,688, up from 3,590 in September 2024, with Nwakuche publicly blaming state governors who neither sign death warrants nor commute sentences. No executions have been carried out in Nigeria since 2016, even as courts continue to hand down capital sentences.
Security failures have been recurrent. Official data indicate that between 2019 and 2025, at least 6,700 inmates escaped from 13 facilities nationwide, with more than 4,600 still at large and about 2,000 recaptured. Those incidents include 1,844 escapees at Owerri in April 2021, about 879 at Kuje in July 2022 after an ISWAP attack, 12 at Koton Karfe in March 2025 and 16 at Keffi in August 2025.
The Service has previously acknowledged the contraband problem. Responding to the investigation before this week’s statement, Osuji said the Controller General maintains zero tolerance for staff compromise and that more than 1,400 officers have faced disciplinary action including dismissals, demotions and suspensions, adding that special tactical teams conduct unannounced searches and that CCTV deployment is planned. The Service also warned that inmates who can go live for money “can as well do anything from the comfort of their cells.”
Government has meanwhile pointed to gains elsewhere. The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, said recidivism fell from 11,616 in 2023 to 3,156 in 2024 and 1,382 in 2025, and disclosed that 15,632 inmates were admitted in May 2026 while 14,190 were released. An Independent Investigative Panel chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Dr Magdalene Ajani, visited 86 custodial centres across 23 states. On July 17, 2026, the minister said 93 per cent of inmates were held for offences under state laws, and that an audit found about 4,000 imprisoned over fines and compensation of less than ₦500,000.
The platform side of the failure is equally documented. TikTok reported removing 4.02 million videos in Nigeria and disrupting over 86,000 LIVE sessions, and recorded a 249.81 per cent rise in regional content removals between the second quarter of 2023 and the fourth quarter of 2024, yet the account at the centre of the case survived that sweep. A bill sponsored by Senator Ned Nwoko compelling major social media companies to open physical offices in Nigeria passed second reading in March 2025 but has not become law.
A cybersecurity expert, Professor Tunde Olabiyisi, argued in the investigation that jammers configured to a defined perimeter could disable unapproved devices without affecting neighbouring facilities.
The NCoS said investigations continue into whether officers, inmates or outside collaborators enabled the breach, warning that anyone found culpable “will face appropriate disciplinary and administrative sanctions in accordance with extant regulations,” while appealing against speculation and commending the vigilance of the media and the public.