The ban was pronounced by Minister of Interior Affairs, Abba Moro while speaking with some senior prison officials in Abuja.
"I have visited some prisons in other countries as the Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Nobody, no matter how highly placed you are, you don't come to prison with your phones, not even the minister of Interior as the supervising minister over the prisons. So, why are you an exception?. Henceforth, no matter who you are including myself, nobody goes into prison with telephones."
And so, as you are going from here, create a meeting platform where all the officers that work in the prisons as they walk into prisons, they submit their phones and collect them when they close."
The Minister also directed that all the phones on all inmates should be confiscated withing 30 days.
