The House of Representatives on Thursday urged the federal government to review the daily feeding allowance of each of the Nigerian Correctional Service inmates from the current N1,125 to N4,000 in view of the current market realities.
This is as the house also urged the Federal Ministry of Finance and Budget Office to increase the capital allocations to the Nigerian Correctional Service to N30 billion in the 2025 budget estimate to enable it to complete all critical ongoing and abandoned projects.
The resolution followed a motion by Rep. Chinedu Ogah during plenary session yesterday.
Ogah, in his motion, expressed concern that the federal government’s negligence in providing adequate budget allocations to the Nigerian Correctional Service has led to concerns about its effectiveness.
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He argued that overcrowding and other challenges at the nation’s correctional centres leading to jailbreaks and other challenges was due to negligence on the part of the federal government to provide enough funds to manage the facilities.
He noted that frequent jailbreaks and severe infractions have emerged as persistent national security challenges.
“The 2024 capital budget allocation of N14 billion to the service is inadequate to accommodate critical expenditure items as such renovation of custodial centres nationwide, which cost about N120 million each; construction of 3,000 capacity Medium Security Custodial Centres as detailed in the budget, among other projects,” he said.
The motion was adopted and referred to the House Committees on Reformatory Institutions and Appropriations to ensure compliance.