The chairman of the Senate committee on Interior, Senator Kashim Shettima has said that decongesting the custodial centres has become imperative to make them habitable and truly reform the inmates.
Shettima who stated this when officials of the Nigerian Correctional Service were in the Senate to defend the 2022 budget of the agency,noted that there are 66,000 inmates in custodial centres across the country, out of which 47,000 are awaiting trials.
He added that the situation has resulted in congestion of the centres nationwide.
He assured that the committee would meet with the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, the Nigerian Bar Association and other stakeholders over the decongestion of custodial centres and the situation of awaiting trial inmates.
Meanwhile the NSC has called for an increased in the daily feeding allowance of the Nigerian Correctional Service from its current N450 per person to a minimum of N1,000 per day.
They proposed an increment of the daily feeding allowance to N750 but the panel which described the amount as grossly inadequate jerked it up to N1,000 in line with the current economic reality.
The committee pledged to undertake an upward review of inmates’ feeding cost from N450 to N1000 per day.
A member of the committee, Senator Betty Apiafi, moved the motion for the increment and she was collectively supported by all members of the panel.
She argued that the amount was grossly inadequate to feed the inmates.
The Chairman assured that the committee would make adequate provisions for the feeding of the inmates.
