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 freely with people outside prison, raising fresh concerns about security lapses 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 the murder of Rofiat Adebisi, a final-year student of Osun State University. Court records indicated that Oyebode gave conflicting accounts of the incident before later denying involvement during trial. He was convicted based on medical evidence and other testimonies presented before the court.
Despite being on death row, investigations alleged that Oyebode maintained an active presence on TikTok. One of the accounts reportedly attained Level 20 gifting status, enabling 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 even sought legal assistance for him after confirming through a video call that he was indeed incarcerated. However, after obtaining court records, she confronted him over the case.
“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, prompting the lawyer handling his appeal to withdraw from the case.
During one of Awoyele’s TikTok livestreams in April 2026, Oyebode allegedly explained how inmates gain access to mobile phones and the internet inside correctional facilities.
“An individual may be in possession of two to three phones. 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,” he reportedly said.
Speaking about his online income, Oyebode allegedly claimed:
“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.”
He also made serious allegations against some correctional officers, claiming they facilitated the smuggling of prohibited items into the prison.
“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 alleged.
According to him, officers who discovered contraband phones often demanded money before returning them to inmates.
“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 before you get it back. Because it is our companion, we will definitely pay.”
Oyebode further alleged that some officers smuggled illegal drugs into the facility for profit.
“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. After repackaging and reselling, the inmates can make ₦2 million from the drugs.”
He also claimed that some inmates were occasionally allowed to leave prison under the supervision of officers to oversee personal business interests.
“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.”
Reflecting on conditions inside the facility, he alleged:
“I will not deceive you; it is no longer a correctional centre. It is corrupting people more.”
Responding to the allegations, the spokesperson for the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Jane Osuji, acknowledged that misconduct by some personnel remained a challenge but stressed that the agency maintains a zero-tolerance policy against 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 among them,” she said.
Osuji called for public cooperation in exposing wrongdoing within correctional facilities.
“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 that unrestricted digital access by inmates poses serious security risks.
“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 criminal activities from behind the walls of the correctional service, then you and I are in for it.”
Osuji noted that contraband remains a challenge for correctional institutions worldwide and disclosed that the service had disciplined more than 1,400 officers for various forms of misconduct.
“The Comptroller-General maintains zero tolerance for every form of misconduct or corruption involving staff or inmates,” she said.
She urged members of the public to report any information that could help authorities investigate such allegations, warning that failure to do so could undermine the goal of rehabilitation.
The investigation also raised questions about TikTok’s content moderation system, alleging that Oyebode’s account remained active despite the platform’s enforcement efforts. TikTok reportedly requested details of the accounts for internal review and later announced the removal of millions of videos and thousands of livestreams in Nigeria, although investigators claimed the inmate’s primary account remained active after the enforcement exercise.