Federal Government supplies drugs to prisons

The Federal Government of Nigeria has purchased and distributed drugs and other medical supplies to all prison formations across the country.

The Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau presented the drugs, worth millions of Naira to the state Comptrollers of Gombe, Rivers, Ogun, Enugu and Niger states on Thursday in Abuja.

While making the presentation, he charged the prison authorities to judiciously utilize the medical supplies for the benefit of prison inmates.

The minister stressed that it was the responsibility of the state comptrollers to ensure the health and well-being of the inmates in the prisons under their jurisdictions. 

The minister said, "Modern prisons practice include good medical treatment of inmates  as well as their welfare.

"We must be able to rehabilitate them so that by the time they come out of prison, they would have been completely rehabilitated.

"Everyone is worried about the prisons situation especially the issue of congestion and overcrowding."

The Comptroller-General of Prisons, Ja’afaru Ahmed in his remarks, said the prisons had experienced infrastructure decay including lack of drugs and other medical necessities for a while.

He explained that the intervention of the minister had changed the situation of things with various projects springing up across the prison formations nationwide.

Speaking after receiving his consignment, the Gombe State Comptroller of prisons, Ahmadu Adamu said he depended on the state government and philanthropists for drug supply to the prisons in the state and promised to fully utilize the medical consignment.