Follow Us on Google
From James Ojo, Abuja.
Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC), Mr. Ibrahim Magu, has said corruption is a threat to prisons reforms,
He attributed the high number of prisons congestion to corruption especially those awaiting trails.
Magu spoke in Abuja recently when he hosted a delegation from the Centre for Prisons Reforms and Inmates’ Right (CPRIR), led by the co-ordinator, Isowo Smart.
He said for the ongoing rehabilitation process in the nation’s prisons to be successful, corruption must be reduced drastically in both economic and political spheres.
He said the high population recorded in all prisons across the country has direct link with corruption, noting that it is a challenge that must be seriously tackled. According to him,”the high number of people in the prisons is as a result of corruption and this poses a challenge in the rehabilitation process”.
Magu assured the group of EFCC’s readiness to partner CPRIR in pushing through penal reforms to make life better for inmates. He insisted that the high number of people in prisons were mostly due to corruption, even those awaiting trials.
According to him, the nation’s prisons are populated with inmates, both condemned and awaiting trials well above their capacity as conceived by colonialists, who built them.
Earlier, Smart stated that there was the need to partner the EFCC as it was clear that, “contrary to some people’s perception, the commission is not a weapon for witchhunt, but a credible platform for fighting corruption.
