The House of Representatives has charged state governments to build modern correctional services in order to forestall jailbreaks in the country.
The chairman, House Committee on Reformatory Institutions,
Chinedu Ogah, stated this during a visit to Suleja prison to inspect the damage caused by the rain that led to the jailbreak.
Ogah stated this since the 1999 Constitution has been amended to move correctional service from exclusive to concurrent list; it behooves on state governments to implement the law by building custodial centres.
The lawmaker, who noted that the fence of the custodial centre collapsed, after a rainfall, because it has become very weak, thereby making it possible for inmates, some of whom have committed capital offences to escape..
He stated that the budget of the Nigerian Correctional Service was inadequate, as they need more money to engage more personnel. According to him, the recruitment of more personnel would help to check attacks on custodial facilities.
“They need more manpower; we are urging Mr. President to approve the recruitment of more manpower to the correction service by recruiting more men to man the correction service.
“The people that are recruited are going to be on the field to do their job, and such a thing will help; there would not be any other jailbreak.
“The correctional service needs more vehicles; the staff of the correctional service are supposed to live in the barracks; they are supposed to live near them so that a lot of this incident can be taken care of, ” Ogah stated.