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Nigeria: FG Begins Decongestion of Prisons
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This Day (Lagos)
12 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Onyebuchi Ezigbo
Abuja
The Federal Government has commenced efforts to decongest the country's prisons by moving inmates on awaiting trial from crowded prisons to other places where there are enough room space.
A statement signed by the Public Relations Officer ofthe Nigerian Prisons Services in Abuja said the Controller-General of Prisons, Mr. Olusola Ogundipe has directed the removal of 250 awaiting trial inmatesof the Ikoyi Prison to the Maximum Security Prison in Kirikiri, Lagos.
According to the statement , similar measures are to be taken across the country to ensure that prison homes were not allowed to harbour prisoners in excess of its capacity. Ogundipe expressed concern that the Ikoyi Prison that issupposed to accomodate 580 inmates is presently having over 2,000 inmates, majority of whom are on awaiting trial. The statement further said that the authorities of the Prisons Service have concluded plans to replicate thesame type of inmate movement in all conjestedprisons, especially in the urban centres nationwide. It said the Minister of Interior, Major General Godwin Abbe (Rtd) will be commissioning the newly completed 240-bed awaiting trial blocks of the Medium Security Prison, Kuje in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja tomorrow.
"The awaiting trial blocks which will be commissioned on Tuesday are to serve as the take-off points of such extension and expansion of inmates cells in all major prisons in Nigeria", it said.
Ogundipe said the decongestion of the prisons has become necessary in order to create space for the inmates and to also ensure that the inmates live in hygienic environment during their stay in the prisons.
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He noted that congestion had been hampering prison administration in its efforts at reforming and rehabilitating the inmates, adding that the federal government would not relent in its determination to reform the prisons service in its bid to conform to global standards.
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