According to the Nigerian government, more than 2000 prisoners have been incarcerated for 10 years or longer without being tried.
At a high-level seminar on decongestion and correctional administration held on Wednesday in Abuja, Mr. Gimba Dumbulwa, Assistant Controller-General, Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), revealed this.
Some of the prisoners, according to Dumbulwa, had been detained for more than ten years without being tried.
He claimed that the nation’s inmate management system was still plagued by the overpopulation of detention centers.
He declared, “As of May 9, 75,436 prisoners are in our custody around the country, while 52,446 others are detainees awaiting trial.
“Out of this figure, more than 70 per cent of them have overstayed in custody due to lateness in sentencing them and keeping them for more than they should be.
“Over 2000 inmates have overstayed for more than 10 years in custody without getting trial.
“Over 5000 inmates have stayed more than five years and over 10,000 inmates have stayed more than one year to six years without trial.
“All these add to the issue of congestion across our custodial centres,” he said.
Dumbulwa said that the effort of the Controller General, NCoS, Mr Haliru Nababa to get the custodial centres decongested was hindered by delays in the trial of inmates.
“The problem we have all over our custodial centres is quick dispensation of justice to these inmates,” he added.
According to him, the NCoS’s only option was to transfer inmates from overcrowded custodial facilities to others with available space.
Dr. Uju Agomoh, Executive Director of Prisoners Rehabilitation and Welfare Action (PRAWA), stated that in order to address the issue, Nigeria must ensure that the justice sector functions effectively.
She observed that “a disproportionate number of people are in places of detention in correctional services and stay there longer than they ought to stay.
“We also have high number of those who have not been convicted.
“That is not right, because once you have high number of people who are not convicted, it is difficult to plan proper rehabilitation and programmes for them or even plan their resettlement.
“This has become very problematic. Therefore, we must be concerned about what happens to them while they are there.”
Agomoh, therefore, said it was important to address issues of overcrowding, non-trial of inmates, proper reformation, rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders.
“We are basically here for solutions. We need to put checks and balances to move and make sure that these agencies function very well in their respective places,” she added.
Agomoh praised President Muhammadu Buhari for removing prison administration from the exclusive legislative list and placing it on the concurrent list.
She stated that state governments now have a role to play in corrections management and should ensure that only those who were supposed to be in custody were present.
