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Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, has revealed that the federal government spends over N1million annually to feed each of the inmates kept in custodial facilities across the country.
Speaking at the inauguration of a 20-bed COVID-19 Crisis Intervention Fund Hospital and Equipment at the Maximum Security Custodial Centre Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Saturday, Aregbesola lamented that the challenges of running correctional services were enormous, with huge demands for infrastructure, equipment and maintaining the welfare of inmates.
He, however, assured that the federal government has provided a long term solution to the challenge of running the centres, while revealing that the government at the centre spends N1,065,790 on maintaining each inmate per annum.
The minister reiterated his earlier announcement that the government will stop feeding inmates who are state offenders by the end of the year.
He restated the commitment of the federal government to the welfare of inmates and officers at the custodial facilities nationwide.
On the inaugurated project, Aregbesola said it will be an enduring legacy and a testimony of the utmost importance the federal government has taken for corrections and the welfare of inmates and the well-being of staff.
He stated that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has addressed the problem of inmates contracting diseases in custodial centres, as the inmates now have access to excellent medical care beyond the centres.
He said: “The custodial centres were frighteningly centres for contracting diseases like scabies and tuberculosis, among others. Happily, this has been addressed by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration and is now a thing of the past. We do not only have well-manned clinics and well stocked pharmacies, the inmates at the custodial centres now have access to excellent medical care beyond the centres.”
He lamented the overcrowding of custodial facilities across the country, he said: “This Maximum Security Custodial Centre in Port Harcourt, with a capacity for 1,800 inmates, presently houses about 3,067 inmates. This is just a reflection of the situation in most urban Custodial Centres where we have congestion at the moment. The facilities and even the personnel are overstretched, but we are coping and providing long term solutions to this challenge.”
Michael Olugbode in Abuja
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