FIJ
Out of the 84,741 inmates in the 256 correctional centres across Nigeria, 57,750 are still awaiting trial. This figure represents 68.1% of all inmates in the Nigerian prison system, and protesters will join them.
Of the 26,991 remaining inmates, 21,900 are convicted, 1,501 are serving a life sentence and 3,590 are on death row.
Abubakar Umar, the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) public relations officer, shared this with FIJ on Wednesday.
FIJ has also found that Nigeria’s correctional centres have been struggling with overcrowding for years. In March, the House of Representatives sought to address this issue stemming from delays in justice administration which make cases linger without resolution.
In May, the state government in Lagos disclosed that seven of its correctional centres were overcrowded with an excess of 9,600 inmates. The Badagry Custodial Centre, for instance, had 508 inmates instead of 320 that month.
The NCoS spokesperson told FIJ that the federal government plans to construct 3000-capacity custodial centres in the six geopolitical zones to tackle congestion. In 2023, the immediate past administration of ex-president Muhammadu Buhari commissioned one in Kano State.
“The issue of decongestion has been ongoing through various reforms. The coming of non-custodial sentencing is an effort to decongest our custodial centres,” Umar told FIJ.
“It’s not all offences that should end in custodial centres. For instance, must somebody be jailed because of a petty quarrel that can be settled? If it’s something that cannot be settled locally or where they eventually take the issue to the police station, most of these offences are given non-custodial sentencing.”
FIJ also learnt that judges and magistrates’ visits to these custodial centres have shown that many inmates had been detained far longer than necessary.
“When judges or magistrates review cases of people awaiting trial and find out that even if such offences are committed, they are supposed to have left where they are, they review the cases and say this person is supposed to leave. These are other forms of decongesting the custodial centres,” Umar added.
Also, according to Umar, there are plans to upgrade facilities that are over 70 years old and relocate those that have been caught by urbanisation. He also said that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) often offer legal representation to inmates who cannot afford lawyers.
When FIJ asked Umar about the timeline for achieving decongestion, he replied, “Government activities are always in present continuous tense, where we’ll continue to work and work until we get it right”.
One hundred and eighteen inmates broke out of the Medium Security Custodial Centres, Suleja, Niger State, in April.
The NCoS blamed the prison break on a heavy downpour of rain rather than overcrowding or poor facilities.
Nigeria has not recovered all the Suleja escapees to date.
THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED IN FIJ
