THE GUARDIAN
Gross underfunding ofcustodial centres and perennial dehumanisation of persons reached a new height with daily cost of feeding each inmate now N750. The Guardian findings confirmed that even security dogs in custody of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) are better fed than humans.
While a dog is fed with N800 worth of meals per day, each inmate is subjected to N750 food every day – to explain why the food is abysmally poor. As at November 2023, records show that there were 80,804 inmates across all the custodial centres in Nigeria, but with the gradual release of inmates, whose fines were recently offset by the Federal Government in partnership with the private sector, the number has decreased.
Meanwhile the NCoS has used N60.6 million to feed 80,804 inmates daily, amounting to N22.12 billion yearly. In contrast, there are 900 dogs being kept by the service. The 900 dogs take N720,000 worth of food daily, amounting to N262.8 million yearly.
This shows that the dogs are better fed by 6.6 per cent, yet there is no evidence that any of those dogs attempting to fend off the terrorists that invaded Kuje Correctional Centre, in Abuja last year or any of such facilities that have been attacked in the past.
According to information obtained by The Guardian, as at December 11, 2023, there are a total of 78,446 inmates across the 253 custodial centres in Nigeria. This means that the inmates are now fed with N58,834,500 daily.
Out of this number, 76,670 are males, while 176 are females. There are 50,401 awaiting trial inmates consisting of 49,195 males and 1,206 females.
On the death row, there are 3,271 inmates of which 3,207 are males and 64 females.
