NCoS Laments On Prisons Filled Above Carrying Capacity

NCoS Laments On Prisons Filled Above Carrying Capacity
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The Custodial Centres of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) have revealed that they are currently in charge of over 16,000 inmates above their carrying capacity, a situation has been revealed to have fuelled some form of  aggression among the inmates and overstretched the prison system in the country.

At the moment, the Custodial Centres of the Nigerian Correctional Service have been revealed to have a combined carrying capacity of 58,278 inmates in the country.

Read Also: 240 Inmates Escape As Gunmen Break Kogi Prison

The Controller-General of Corrections (CGC), Haliru Nababa, while speaking at the Second Controller-General of Corrections’ Retreat holding in Sokoto, opined that the retreat aimed to draw and outline a five-year direction for the service in line with the Ministerial retreat held in Ilorin.

According to him, the NCoS maintains 244 facilities, including 20 farm centres, 10 cottage industries, one open camp and 4 training institutions across the country. He explained that the current capacity of Nigerian Custodial Centres stands at 58,278 as against the population of over 75, 000 inmates, saying that in recent times, the Nigerian Custodial Centres have experienced incessant attacks which were externally organized and executed.

He observed that over 14,101 inmates have acquired proficiency certificates in various probations, while over 3,730 inmates have received start-up tools under the NCoS Aftercare Support Programme.

He assured that the Nigerian Custodial Centres remained Covid–19 protocols compliant, and have not recorded any case so far.

The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola had recently promised to recapture all inmates who escaped from the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) Custodial Centre, Abolongo, Oyo State.

A statement by the Media Adviser to the Minister, Mr Sola Fasure, stated that Aregbesola made the promise while on an inspection visit to the facility on Sunday in Oyo.

Recall that a large number of heavily armed gunmen attacked the Abolongo Custodial Centre at about 10 p.m. on Saturday, during which several inmates escaped.

The minister stated that 446 out of 907 escapees had already been re-captured, while 69 remained in the facility.

Aregbesola assured Nigerians that the Federal Government would pursue not just those who attacked the facility, but those who escaped lawful custody.

 

Africa Daily News, New York

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