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Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), has denied banning religious activities with inmates, saying that only visits to custodial centres were suspended in compliance with National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) COVID-19 protocol.
In a statement, Controller of Corrections, Public Relations Officer, James Enobore, said, however, that the service encourages all forms of genuine visits to inmates by relations and well meaning individuals/groups in order to promote psycho-social support, which is pivotal to reformation and rehabilitation of inmates.
“To put the records straight, visits to custodial centres was temporarily suspended in April, 2022 in compliance with National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) COVID-19 protocol in order to prevent the dreaded pandemic from entering custodial centres.
Since the pandemic has not abated but continues to mutate, with the current virulent Omicron variant still uncaged, the Presidential Taskforce on COVID-19, in its wisdom, has advised the sustenance of preventive protocols which include, crowd control, strict monitoring of migration amongst others. Hence, the management of the NCoS is yet to relax the restriction on visits to Custodial Centres” he said.
However, NCoS noted that while other custodial centres suffered the pandemic, custodial centres in Nigeria did not record any single pandemic.
“The public may wish to note that while custodial centres in some developed climes suffered under the weight of the pandemic, custodial centres in Nigeria, with its overwhelming population phenomenon, is able to maintain zero infection status among the inmates. This is made possible through strict adherence to various preventive measures.
“Similarly, it would be recalled that, through proactive and professional management of health issues amongst inmates, disease outbreaks like Ebola, Cerebral Spinal Meningitis (CSM), lassa fever just to mention a few, have been successfully prevented from entering custodial centres in Nigeria and no inmate has been lost to any of the diseases.
“The Controller General of Corrections (CGC), Haliru Nababa, appreciates the co-operation of members of the public in complying with the preventive measures and assures that the health and complete well being of inmates in custody will continue to enjoy prime attention in his administration.
“While praying for an end to the pandemic, the correction’s boss further assures that all restrictions will be lifted as soon as advice to this effect is received from the appropriate authorities” he said.
