Lagos — A MASSIVE shake-up of officers and men of the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) from the ranks of comptrollers down wards involving not less than 300 officers have swept through NPS nationwide. The Lagos State Comptroller of the prisons command, Mr. Kess Momoh who was affected in the exercise, is expected to hand over to a new comptroller this morning. Vanguard gathered that Kess Momoh and the State Assistant Chief Account, Mr. I. A. Adebanjo was top the rank of officers and men of the NPS affected in the Lagos State command, with Ikoyi prisons having the largest number of both intra and inter-state transfers. A senior prisons officer told Vanguard that not less than 300 officers were affected in the move to make the prisons respond to increasing public outcries about the restiveness of inmates and the rank and files of the prisons.

While Mr. Kess Momoh was said to have been transferred to Abuja, the Assistant Chief Account was said to have been moved to Kaduna. When contacted on telephone, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the state prisons, Mr. Ope Fatinikun could neither confirm nor deny the report that the state comptroller, Mr. Kess Momoh has been removed. But a senior officer at Ikoyi prisons told Vanguard on condition of anonymity that Mr. Kess Momoh had actually been transferred and that he would be handing over to a new man this morning. "Yes, the comptroller has been transferred and will be handing over tomorrow (today) to his successor who is already on the ground. The comptroller is not the only one affected. Many people were affected. including the account department", he said.

Since Mr. Kess Momoh replaced Mr. Ogundipe as the comptroller of prisons in the state over two years ago, the state has witnessed not less than two major inmates riots with lot of casualties. The first was in the medium security prisons, Kirikiri June last year which claimed the lives of three inmates and one warder. The other one was the recent Ikoyi prisons riot which ended with casualties as well.