From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS), has taken stock of the casualties inflicted on its personnel by the violent Islamic extremists, Boko Haram, announcing that the service lost 49 prison officers.
The Controller-General of the Service, Ja’Afaru Ahmed, who made the disclosure during his maiden interaction with senior officers from the rank of Controllers of Prison, also lamented that the service shutdown over 32 prisons to checkmate the frequent attacks of prisons by Boko Haram.
Regretting the increasing rate of prison congestion, he disclosed that out of 65,000 inmates, 72 per cent are on the awaiting trial list while 60 per cent of the figure are inmates facing murder and armed robbery cases.
Asked the number of prison officers killed by Boko Haram, the Prison CG said: “I must admit that we lost a number of officers who were killed when our various prisons were attacked in Mubi, Meha, Damaturu and various other places.
“To be specific on the number, I want to say that on the whole and by our last count, we lost over 49 prison officers to the attacks of the insurgents. They forced us to shutdown 32 prisons in the North East zone.
“However, we intend to open those prisons and commence operations very soon, since we are beginning to see the restoration of relative peace and stability. We are also planning to rehabilitate most of the prisons destroyed during the attacks,” he assured.
He lamented the delay in trial of the inmates.
“Of immediate concern to my leadership is the issue of slow dispensation of justice which has culminated in unacceptable long stay of persons awaiting trial in the prisons, and the attendant problem of congestion.
“Presently, there are about 65000 inmates in prison custody. Out of this number, those awaiting trial account for about 72 per cent while the remaining are convicts. This situation is unacceptable and must be changed at all cost if our reformation and rehabilitation mandate must be achieved.
“It is important to state here that inmates facing non-bailable offences such as armed robbery, murder etc, constitute over 60 per cent of those awaiting trial and as already known, different government organs have key roles to play in this regard,” he lamented.
“I want to set a standard that whosoever comes after will leverage and maintain what we have achieved. I am out to see that these challenging areas are addressed to ensure that Nigerian prison will never remain the same,” he said.