Reject inmates you can’t accommodate, FG tells prisons controllers

The Federal Government has instructed state controllers of correctional centres to reject inmates when they do not have the capacity to accommodate them. 

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Interior, Shuaib Belgore, gave the instruction in Abuja yesterday at the decoration ceremony of newly promoted senior officers of the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCoS). 

He said custodial centres had witnessed upsurge of inmates in recent years, noting that the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, had kick-started a stakeholders’ engagement for decongestion of correctional facilities across the nation. 

He said the effort had been boosted by building of new facilities in Kano and Karshi in the Federal Capital Territory.

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He said: “May I also remind the Controller-General to direct all controllers in charge of correctional facilities across Nigeria to implement the minister’s directive to decongest the facilities as stipulated in the NCoS Act. 

“Let me buttress this point with the Nigerian Correctional Service Act 2019, section 12 sub section (8) as amended, which states and I quote: ‘Without prejudice to subsection (4), the State Controller of Correctional Service in conjunction with the Superintendent shall have the power to reject more intakes of inmates where it is apparent that the correctional centre in question is filled to capacity’.

“I’ll therefore advise you to be guided by the provision of the Act with a view to ensuring that our correctional centres are decongested as ongoing construction of facilities across the country will ultimately make this task achievable.”

The Controller-General of the Correctional Service, Haliru Nababa, said 13 senior officers were promoted to the rank of Assistant Controllers-General of Corrections and 57 to the rank of Controllers of Corrections (CC).