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By Owolabi Alani
It is quite unfortunate that the Nigerian Correctional Service is in the news not to commend the invaluable efforts and sacrifices of the officers and men of the Service but to condemn them unconstructively and with a poor knowledge of the plight, operations and activities of the Service. The most disturbing of these criticisms is the audacity of those who are constitutionally responsible for the operation of the Service to also condemn it.
Between 2017 and July, 2022, about fifteen (15) custodial centres have been attacked with over three thousands (3000) inmates at large. Measures are being taken to recapture the fled inmates while others have been returning willingly. Despite these system failure induced occurrences, and the marked negligence of the Service, the Service has been working tirelessly to ensure that her constitutional responsibilities of safe custody of legally interned persons, movement of inmates to and from courts, reformation, rehabilitation and reintegration of inmates remain her priorities.
Of all the security agencies in Nigeria, the Nigerian Correctional Service receive the least attention from the federal and state governments despite the significant roles it plays in national security. The government seems to be less concerned about the state of the Service. An agency that generate little or no income but is key to national development is left to care for itself. During security council meetings, the three security agencies under the armed forces are duly represented by their heads, the chief of defence staff and the minister of defence are present, the minister of police affairs is present, the Inspector General of Police is present. The head of the Nigerian Correctional Service and other security agencies under the Ministry of Interior are absent. Only to be represented by their minister, a political appointee with little or no knowledge of the activities of the Services. The President hardly has one on one discussion with the head of the Correctional Service. How then does the Controller General of this important agency share his experience, challenges, achievements and intelligence with the President? He should share them with his minister who in turn relays them to the President? How does the President know and rate his capabilities? Does it mean that the security agencies in the Ministry of Interior are not important? Why the hullabaloo whenever the available security and efficiency in the custodial centres are breached, and inmates on the run if the agency is not important enough nor worthy to be heard directly by the President? Is this not a crocodile tears? The structures in the custodial centres and those in the barracks for its staff are largely those of the colonial era. Others were put in place by individuals who had either passed time in these centres or out of generosity. Efforts have only been made on papers to reform the Prison Service System in Nigeria. These rickety structures are weak, outdated, inadequate and overstretched. There is no serious efforts from governments to correct these anomalies in the face of the everyday surge in the number of inmates in various custodial centres across the federation.
Logistics is another major problem the Service has been striving hard to address to ensure that inmates are taken to and from courts as at when due. The means of transporting inmates are grossly inadequate and/or archaic. Working tools are poorly available. The few available ones are outdated and do not fit in for modern day security arrangement. No custodial centre in the country has a functional closed-circuit television (CCTV), while many have never had any installation of a closed-circuit television. Staff buses are not available across the states of the federation. Only the federal capital territory has one or two. Staff are often cramped up with inmates in the regular rickety green maria to and from courts duties. In a nutshell, the working conditions of staff in the Service, both in the custodial centres and on court duties is completely pathetic. The Service is understaffed especially in custodial centres that are overcrowded. The available staff are overused. Some staff are on duty for not less than thirteen (13) to fifteen (15) hours in a day depending on the state of activities at a custodial centre. Leave and allowances are not the rights of a Nigerian Correctional Service staff. Most staff have been on duty for years without benefitting from annual and other leaves as stipulated in the Public Service Rules. They only enjoy scattered days off duty. Allowances as contained in the Public Service Rules are not paid to staff. Staff promotion is a privilege and not a right. Promotion arrears are not paid to promoted staff as at when due. Whenever they desire to pay this entitlement, many do not get theirs while the few that get are grossly underpaid. The few available outdated staff quarters do not accommodate ten percent (10%) of the available staff. Stating these long lists of poor working conditions of staff will require more pages. For years, it has been mere talk without action on changing the Service uniform. This has lingered and is fast becoming a foregone project. The much touted harmonisation of ranks and salaries to match with those of other security agencies particularly the police is another political statement. The officers and men of this Service are passing through their own hell on earth.
On custodial centres congestion and its consequences, the judiciary is a major contributor to this cankerworm. It is very easy for the learned fellow to speak in public fora on the inadequacies of the Correctional Service but keep mute on their roles in the long list of the awaiting trial inmates in these custodial centres. Over eighty (80%) percent of the total inmates in custodial centres across the federation are awaiting trial. Many of these inmates do not know their adjournment dates due largely to the everyday absence of their magistrates and judges without prior notice to the officers of the Correctional Service nor their lawyers. The judiciary does not have a database of all the suspects standing trials in their respective courts. This could have been used to prepare reproduction warrants for all the inmates standing trial in their courts, who for one reason or the other had missed their adjournment dates to appear in their respective courts on later dates. Magistrates and judges attend seminars, go on long vacations and other “judicial assignments” at the expense of inmates standing trials in their courts. Their cases are not assigned to available judges/courts but adjourned farther without a recourse to the time inmates spend awaiting trial. This leaves many inmates anxious in the custodial centres with more work for the custodial officers. The prosecuting agencies largely dominated by the police have been another major contributor to the needless congestion of the Nigerian Correctional Service. Globally, investigation precedes arrest. But for the prosecuting agencies in Nigeria, arrest comes before investigation. Without equipping themselves with enough evidence to prosecute their cases, they inundate courts for remand orders keeping suspects beyond constitutionally allowed time awaiting trails. In the long run, they lose most of these cases for lack of admissible and/or convicting evidence. Unfortunately, many suspects are in police and EFCC custodies and custodial centres today without charges yet. They are at the mercy of the remand orders given by courts/judges who ought to know better and check these anomalies. But they are not helping matters. They keep inmates in custodial centres with no witnesses pursuing their cases. While courts rather than discharging such cases for want of diligence prosecution leave these inmates in custodial centres adding to the already overstretched facilities.
On the state of the custodial centres, the respective state governments care less about the activities of the Correctional Service. Many of the inmates in the Nigerian Correctional Service are state offenders. Unfortunately, the state governments, particularly Lagos and River States Governments (with the largest number of state inmates in the federation) have contributed little or nothing to the operations of Nigerian Correctional Service. The administration of criminal justice system is seated on a tripod of: Police, Judiciary and the Correctional Service. Of these agencies, the Correctional Service receives tokens from the state governments compare to the number of state inmates in their facilities. Out of every two hundred (200) vehicles, for instance, bought by a state government for security agencies, hardly does the Correctional Service get two (2) to three (3) from these vehicles. And this comes once in a blue moon. No state can point at one or two things that they put in place in the Nigerian Correctional Service centres across the federation. Not even a gadget. Yes, it is a federal agency but the state governments benefits more from them. Everyone does not want to have anything to do with the Correctional Service but they want the centres to be secured and effective. The armed forces are reasonably funded and equipped, the police are reasonably funded and equipped but the Correctional Service should come begging to be funded and equipped? And we want the centres to be formidable and immune from attacks? No matter how well the armed forces and the police are funded, equipped and reformed, if the Nigerian Correctional Service is not better funded, equipped and reformed to perform its constitutionally responsibilities, all these efforts will be in vain, national security will be threatened and national development will be impossible.
