Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, has approved a contract of N2.8 billion for the installation of a digital web-based integrated system to aid prisons decongestion across the country.
The Minister of Justice and Attorney-General the Federation, Abubakar Malami, said the project would improve the country’s justice system and decongest the prisons, which would assist stakeholders in the office of the Attorney General, Nigeria Prisons Service (NPS), Nigeria Police as well as selected courts, to monitor on real-time progress of pending cases and movement of suspects between the courts and prisons, those who have overstayed their prison terms as well as those wrongly imprisoned.
Addressing State House correspondents at the end of the over three-hour meeting, Malami said it would allow the AGF’s office to daily monitor prison inmates that should be taken to court and when; identify those that have stayed for long awaiting trial; those whose cases have peculiar twists or other interventions that may be required, among other factors.
According to him, the new system will replace the practice of setting up government committees that usually embark on tour of prisons to hear individual cases and identify inmates that deserve pardon or prerogative of mercy as part of efforts to decongest the prisons.
“The system would be operated by retrained staff of NPS, while there would be checks to substantiate the input or data of suspects put into the system to avoid compromise and other forms of corruption,” Malami said.
FEC also approved the contract of N291.73 million for the procurement of Memory Access Retrieval System (MARS) to enhance aviation safety in the country.
Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, explained that “safety and security is the main thrust of President Buhari government in aviation” and that the new system “will enhance our laboratory in accident investigation. It is a requirement of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in the standard practices and applicable by local laws”.
He assured the public that investigations were ongoing as regards the fire incident at Sam Mbakwe Airport, Owerri, and that the report would be made available to the public afterwards.
Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, on his part said FEC approved two contracts for the N-Power Build programme of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), to impart skills on young non-graduates.
He explained that the N-Power Build programme is a non-graduate programme that seeks to deliver accelerated training and certificated skills to 75,000 Nigerians between ages of 18-35 years old.