Follow Us on Google
Fred Itua, Abuja
Members of the Senate Committee on Interior, chaired by Senator Andy Uba, have condemned the budgetary proposal of N450 for 3 meals per day for persons serving time in Nigerian Prisons in the 2018 financial year.
The aggrieved committee members made this known at the 2018 budget defence of the Ministry of Interior over the weekend.
Reacting to questions by members of the committee, the Comptroller-General (CG) of the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS), Ahmed Ja’afaru, told lawmakers that N17 billion was allocated for feeding, which is to be spread across the 244 prison facilities in Nigeria and to cater to 73,962 inmates, who were held at the various facilities, as at Monday, 22nd January, 2018.
The CG explained that the N300 was for the actual meal, while N150 is t expended on cooking.
Reacting, Senator Chukwuka Utazi, criticised the Federal Government for the poor budgetary allocation.
He noted that the treatment given to the prison inmates “would make them gradually become hardened, rather than being reformed,” when they are eventually released into general society.
Members of the committee called for a review of the allocation for feeding of prisoners and added that any proposal that does not provide monies in the neighbourhood of a minimum of N500 per meal is not acceptable, especially taking the current high cost of food, into cognisance.
Earlier, the chairman of the committee had tasked agencies under the committee’s supervision to embrace timely delivery of well-articulated reports in order to aid the panel in the performance of its oversight functions.
As a result of the lapse, the budget defence process of the Federal Fire Service (FFS) was truncated for non-compliance with set standards and its budget defence was deferred to another date.
The CG was asked to leave and return at another date.
In another development, the committee mandated the Interior Ministry to provide necessary documents in support of their spendings and their argument on the Service Wide Vote within two days..
Minister of the Interior, Abdurahaman Dambazzau, in his response to questions on illegal migration, told lawmakers that the Ministry was working on the successful repatriation of Nigerians in Libya.
The committee also queried the printing of Nigerian passport outside the country, a practice that exposes Nigeria to economic losses and citizens to security risks.
