NHRC begins 2016 prison audit

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has started this year’s audit of the country’s prisons.
The prison audit exercise which began in Awka, Anambra State yesterday according to Fatimah Agwai Mohammad, the head, media unit of the NHRC, will proceed simultaneously in all the 23 states and FCT where the commission has zonal and state offices.
She said the exercise would examine the general condition of prison inmates, prison officials and prison infrastructure and make appropriate recommendations to the authorities.
She added that the audit would particularly examine the access to justice issues and welfare of both awaiting trial inmates and convicts and make appropriate recommendations.
“This audit will be followed by a national prison conference to examine the rights of prison inmates and the challenges of security at the prisons. The outcome of the audit and the conference will help to proffer solutions to the current spate of jailbreaks in the prisons”, she said.
This year’s exercise was flagged-off by the Executive Secretary of the commission, Prof. Bem Angwe, in collaboration with the National Assembly.