By Henry Udutchay
The Nigerian Correctional Service, formerly Nigerian Prisons Service, has a very significant and indispensible role to play in the country’s criminal justice delivery system. As the only agency of government solely empowered by law to keep custody and records of convicted criminals and those awaiting trial, it has been grappling with the onerous task of fulfilling this national mandate. However, the ability and capacity of the service to live up to high public expectations of efficient management of correctional facilities across the country are being hampered by some daunting challenges.
Among such challenges are inadequate funding, poor welfare package for the staff and inmates and dilapidated infrastructure at various correctional centres across the country. Indeed, the facilities in most of the centres are very dehumanizing and in a sorry state.
Closely linked to the poor state of infrastructure in the nation’s correctional centres is congestion. Although there are about 240 correctional centres across the country with a combine capacity for about 50,000 inmates, this has been doubled over the years as a result of large number of those awaiting trial. The fact is that the correctional facilities have been overstretched beyond the capacity of the service to manage. This deplorable state of affair is made worse by inadequate security in and around the correctional facilities.
It is therefore not surprising about the frequency with which attacks at the correctional centres have occurred in the recent time. From available records since December 2020, when hoodlums attacked Benin correctional centre during the EndSARS protest, there has been 18 jailbreaks with at least seven of them being successful. Available records indicate that, nearly 6,000 inmates have escaped from various correctional centres across the country in the past one year. The latest of such jailbreak occurred at Kuje correctional central located in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, when some yet to be identified gun men attacked the centre which led to the escape of several inmates. Worried by this ugly scenario, the Controller General of Correctional, Haliru Nababa, has been working tirelessly to implement some necessary reforms that would enhance the capacity and efficiency of the correctional service. A tested technocrat and astute administrator, the CGC has left no one in doubt of his zeal and commitment to transform the Nigerian Correctional Service.
Working in tandem with the Honourable Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who has ably supported him, the CGC has initiated and embarked on several programmes aimed at repositioning the service. Flowing with that vision, the service recently held a two-day retreat for its senior management cadre to brainstorm on how the service could meet the public expectations. The retreat tagged “Sokoto 2022,” with the theme “The Nigerian Correctional Service: Meeting Public Expectations,” which took place at Kasarawa International Conference Centre, Sokoto, provided a soothing ambience and ample opportunity to holistically examine the various challenges confronting the service with a view of charting the way forward.
At the end of the very intense and highly stimulating conference, far-reaching recommendations were made, which if properly implemented would be able to address some of the critical challenges hampering the efforts of the service. Among such recommendations was need to ensure adequate biometric capturing of the inmates by relevant agencies such as National Identity Management Commission and Nigerian Immigration.
Service. It was equally recommended that there should be provision of foolproof database of all inmates at the various correctional centres.
Another important recommendation was the need for strategic collaboration with relevant agencies such as National Identity Management Commission, Nigerian Immigration Service and National Fraud Intelligence Unit using ICT for intelligence gathering, monitoring and sharing. Similarly, the need for interagency security proactive collaboration was recommended and to be given priority. The conference also made very strong recommendation on the importance of ensuring the provision of secure buffers between custodial facilities and adjoining properties. This is in addition to installation of hi-tech surveillance system and bomb resistance devices at the correctional centres, as well as citing of correctional centres at isolated and secure locations.
Other recommendations by the conference include, periodic review of criminal justice system to conform to existing realities of the state of correctional facilities; purchase and supply of more arms for personnel manning correctional facilities especially at the centres with high profile inmates and replacing the aged and dilapidated facilities with modern state of the art ones that facilitate reformation.
Furthermore, it also recommended that the welfare of the inmates as well as their rights and dignity as enshrined in the 2019 correctional service Act should be given top priority, as well as issuance of clearance certificate to reformed inmates for seamless integration and acceptance by the society.
The conference resolved to push for the harmonization of staff remuneration to be at par with the Nigeria Police in accordance with extant circulars and also called for a review of retirement policy in terms of benefits and disbursement to beneficiaries.
The conference made a passionate appeal to the Federal Government for the release of funds to pay for capital projects to contractors, outstanding bills of ration and gas supplied to correctional centres. It equally appealed for funding to procure operational vehicles and other logistics.
There is no doubt that the conference made for reaching recommendations and if vigorously implemented would ensure efficient service delivery by the correctional service. With increase in high profile criminal activities such as banditary, terrorism and kidnapping across the country, the correctional facilities have become vulnerable to coordinated attacks by criminal elements. The recent attach at Kuje correctional facility is indeed a wakeup call for more vigilance to forestall further embarrassing assault on the nation. According to the Ministry of Defence sources about 879 inmates were said to have escaped, but over 400 of them have been re-arrested so far. While a general manhunt had been intensified to apprehend the rest including over sixty members of Boko Haram terrorists who were being detained in the facility.
It is gratifying that President Muhammadu Buhari had promptly visited the Kuje correctional facility for assessment and issued out directives to security agencies to fish out the culprits. A visibly angry President Buhari, while being conducted round the heavily destroyed facility by the CGC, Haliru Nababa, expressed his disappointment with the failure of intelligence at the correctional centre. He ordered for a probe to unravel the circumstances leading to the dastardly attack. But there is the need for more pragmatic action to ensure that the nation’s correctional facilities are properly and adequately secured.
•Chief Udutchay is a public affairs analyst; [email protected]/ 08091111250