Nigerian prison
By Our Reporter
An Assistant Controller-General of Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Mr Gimba Dumbulwa, has said that over 2000 inmates have spent 10 years and more in correctional centres across the country without trial.
He revealed this during a high-level conference on decongestion and corrections administration, on Wednesday in Abuja.
Dumbulwa stated that some of the inmates had been held without trial for more than ten years.
He stated that the overcrowding of detention facilities remained a major issue in the country’s inmate management.
He said, “As at May 9, 75,436 inmates are in our custody across the nation while 52,446 are awaiting trial inmates.
“Out of this figure, more than 70 per cent of them have overstayed in custody due to lateness in sentencing them and keeping them for more than they should be.
“Over 2000 inmates have overstayed for more than 10 years in custody without getting trial.
“Over 5000 inmates have stayed more than five years and over 10,000 inmates have stayed more than one year to six years without trial.
“All these add to the issue of congestion across our custodial centres,” he said.
Dumbulwa said that the effort of the Controller General, NCoS, Mr Haliru Nababa to get the custodial centres decongested was hindered by delays in the trial of inmates.
“The problem we have all over our custodial centres is quick dispensation of justice to these inmates,” he added.
According to him, the NCoS’s only option was to transfer inmates from overcrowded custodial facilities to others with available space.
