Sunday, August 2, 2026 -A death row inmate at the Ibara Correctional Centre in Abeokuta, Ogun State, allegedly operated multiple TikTok accounts, hosted livestreams, received monetary gifts, and communicated with people outside prison, raising concerns about security and corruption within Nigeria's correctional system.
The inmate, Elijah Oyebode, was sentenced to death by
hanging in 2019 after an Osun State High Court convicted him of murdering
Rofiat Adebisi, a final-year student of Osun State University. According to
court records, Oyebode gave conflicting accounts of the crime before denying
involvement during trial. The court found him guilty based on medical and other
evidence
Despite being on death row, Oyebode allegedly maintained an
active presence on TikTok. One account reportedly reached Level 20 gifting
status, allowing him to receive monetary gifts during livestreams.
Investigators also linked him to another account allegedly created to
impersonate TikTok creator and activist Omolola Awoyele.
Awoyele said she initially believed Oyebode's claims of
innocence and helped seek legal support after confirming through a video call
that he was indeed inside prison. However, she later obtained court records and
confronted him. "Elijah created an account using my name and uploaded my
picture, which meant he could potentially use it to scam people online,"
Awoyele said.
She added: "At first, I did not believe him. I asked if
he had WhatsApp because I wanted to confirm his claims through a video call.
Through the video call, I confirmed that he was indeed in prison."
According to Awoyele, Oyebode later admitted his involvement
in the crime, leading the lawyer handling his appeal to withdraw from the case.
During one of her TikTok livestreams in April 2026, Oyebode allegedly disclosed
how inmates access phones and the internet inside prison.
"An individual may be in possession of two to three
phones," he said. "Facebook and TikTok are full of prisoners. They
will not disclose their location to anyone. If they do video calls and people
see a nice background, they will not know where they are."
Speaking about his online earnings, he said: "I get a
lot of people sending money to me from the internet; only a few are my family.
The bet I won last month was ₦85,000." Oyebode also alleged that
correctional officers helped smuggle prohibited items into the facility. She
said: "The warders are not the ones selling phones to us. They only get
them for us at the tarmac and smuggle them in for us."
He further claimed: "Even if it is the warder that brought it in for you,
if another warder sees it, he will seize it and demand a certain amount from
you before you get it back. Because it [phone] is our companion, we will
definitely pay for its release."
On illegal drugs, he alleged: "Warders smuggle drugs in
for inmates. The inmate might buy the drugs for about ₦500,000, and the warder
who smuggled them in might collect ₦100,000 from them. So, after repackaging
and reselling, the inmates can make ₦2 million from the drugs."
He also claimed: "There are some inmates here who are
building hotels outside the prison and always go there for supervision with the
aid of the warders while facing the death penalty. The warders take them to
their various houses and hotels and bring them back. Some will meet people,
especially women, on social media and settle the warders to meet with
them."
Reflecting on his experience in prison, Oyebode said:
"I will not deceive you; it is no longer a correctional centre. It is
corrupting people more."
Responding to the allegations, Nigerian Correctional Service
spokesperson Jane Osuji acknowledged that misconduct by some officers remained
a challenge but stressed that the agency does not tolerate corruption. "I
cannot sit down here and tell you that it is true or it's not true because
where there are so many individuals, there will be one or two bad eggs in
them," she said. "We want a situation where we can work together so
that we can have evidence of this, track it, and get both the inmates and the
officers that are enabling this."
She warned about the risks posed by inmates having
unrestricted digital access. She said: "If they can join a live social
media platform for fun or monetary value, they can as well do anything from the
comfort of their cells. When they are able to organise their criminal
activities from behind the walls of the correctional service, then you and I
are in for it."
Osuji added that contraband remained a global correctional
challenge. She said: "It is important to state clearly that the smuggling
of unauthorised gadgets into prisons is a challenge faced by correctional
administrations globally."
She said the service had disciplined more than 1,400
officers for various forms of misconduct and maintained a zero-tolerance
policy. She said: "The comptroller-general maintains a zero tolerance for
every form of misconduct or corruption involving staff or inmates." She
also appealed to the public: “If inmates continue to receive such assistance
without reports being made to the authorities, they may leave correctional
facilities worse than when they entered, defeating the purpose of correction
and rehabilitation.”
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