Raphael Ede
The House of Representatives has assured that it would pass any bill that would engender prisons reform in the country in line with the international best practices.
The House noted that a bill seeking to amend the Prisons Act, 2004 to empower Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS) to focus on correctives and reformatory services has been pending at the House in the last 17-years.
Declaring open a 2-Day retreat for House of Representatives Committee on Interior, on the review of the amendment of the Prisons Act, holding at Oakland Hotels, Enugu, on Monday, the committee Chairman, Hon. Jagaba Adams, said that the committee would fast-track the passage of the Prisons Reforms Bill with the urgency it deserved.
Jagaba disclosed that the retreat was sequel to the public hearings on four Nigerian Prisons Service Amendment Acts, conducted in 2017 and intensive research & extensive consultations with critical stakeholders for the purposes of producing a document that would be comprehensive enough to address the challenges inherent in the present Prisons system.
The bills seeking for the amendments according to him are: “A bill for an Act to establish the special maximum security prisons for person accused or convicted of Terrorism, Insurgency, Kidnapping and other crimes against the state and for other related matters (HB487).
“A bill for an Act to establish a correction, reformation and integration centre to provide support services for persons in the area of reformation, reintegration and youthful offender programming and other related matters (HB. 452).
“A bill for an Act to regulate community service for offenders in certain cases, to require a person convicted of a minor offence, with the consent of the offender, to perform community service in lieu of imprisonment and to provide for other related matters (HB. 488) and
“A bill for an Act to repeal the prisons Act, Cap. P29, Law of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and re-enact the Nigerian Prisons and Correctional Service to make comprehensive provisions for the administration of Prisons in Nigeria and other related matters (HB. 516 and 517),” he disclosed.
He, however, said that the importance of amendments of the bills cannot be overemphasized, given the challenges bedeviling Nigerian Prisons system.
In his remark, the Controller General of NPS, Ahmed Ja’afaru represented by ACG Suraji Olarinde, urged the NASS to pass the bills to empower the Service to be a 21st century service that would focus on reformatory services to ensure that offenders do not return to the society at the expiration of their prison terms to continue to threaten the peace and security of the society.