All Nigeria’s Custodial Centres Hold Total Number Of 68,901 Inmates—NcoS

The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has disclosed that the total number locked up in custodian centres across the country is 68,901 inmates.

The Service also revealed that still at large as a result of recent jail invasions are over 3,000 escapees.

Speaking at an interactive session with journalists in Abuja on Friday, the spokesman of NCoS, Francis Enobore, said re-arresting the escaped inmate was an ongoing process.

Enobore said so many of the escaped inmates returned on their own, some were recaptured, while parents and traditional rulers brought back some.

He noted that as at last count, a total of 68,901 people are kept in Nigerian custodial facilities with those convicted 49,234 (representing 29 percent) and those awaiting trial making up 49,234 or 71 percent.

He said one of the greatest positives from the Nigerian correctional centres is that since the outbreak of COVID-19 last year there has not been a case of infection reported.

He said: “We have procedure put in place to ensure that inmates are screened before getting into the corrections.

He however appealed to media practitioners to report the positive aspect of the correction centers so as to make members of the public well enlightened and better informed of happenings in the facilities across the country.

Enobore said the case of prison invasions was traceable to the limit the society as disintegrated and not because of the fault of the Nigerian Correctional Service.

He said plans are already on the way to fortify the correctional centres against eternal attack, adding that some of the centres may be moved out of town in order to put back in place the needed buffer.

He lamented that urbanisation has led to the loss of the buffer for most correctional centres and was responsible for the growing attacks on centres across the country.