Senate committee okays N1000 ration for prisoners

The Senate Committee on Interior on Wednesday said it would undertake an upward review of inmates’ feeding cost from N450 to N1000 per day.

The decision was reached when officials of the Nigerian Correctional Service appeared before the committee to defend the 2022 budget estimates.

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The Service, in its 2022 estimates, proposed the increment of the feeding cost from N450 to N750, citing the high cost of food items.

But a member of the panel, Senator Chukwuka Utazi, said the amount was grossly inadequate to feed the inmates.

“You’re dealing with adults. How can they survive with that amount? When you send convicts to prisons, instead of reforming them, they become more hardened because of the way they’re treated, particularly food,” Utazi said.

He said the committee would make adequate provisions for the feeding of the inmates.

The panel also said it 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.

The chairman of the committee, Senator Kashim Shettima, said: “We’ve 66,000 inmates in the custodial centres across the country, and 47,559 of them are unconvicted.”