Federal Government Spends N1m On Each Inmate Every Year-Aregbesola

The Federal Government spends N1m on each of the over 76,000 inmates spread across the nation’s 240 Correctional Centres every year.

This was disclosed by the Interior Minister, Rauf Aregbesola, while inaugurating a 20-bed COVID-19 Crisis Intervention Fund Hospital and Equipment at the Maximum Security Custodial Centre, Port Harcourt.

In a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Saturday by his Media Adviser, Sola Fasure, the Minister also disclosed that going forward, the federal government will only be responsible for feeding inmates in Correctional facilities for violating federal laws. 

"Let me also reiterate that the Federal Government will stop feeding inmates incarcerated for breaching state laws. As you commencing your budget process for next year, include feeding of your inmates," he advised state governors. 

Aregbesola noted that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration had, to a large extent, addressed the problem of inmates contracting diseases in custodial centres with the provision of well manned clinics and adequately stocked pharmaceutical outlets at its Correctional centres and beyond, where inmates can access excellent medical attention. 

"We not only have well-manned clinics and well-stocked pharmacies, the inmates at the custodian centres now have access to excellent medical care beyond the centres," he said, pointing out that prior,

“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."

Aregbesola, who decried the enormous challenges of running correctional services with huge demands for infrastructure, equipment and inmate welfare maintainance, the welfare of inmates, assured however, that the federal government has now made provisions for a long-term solution to the challenges Inherent in the sector, including inadequate facilities.

“This 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.

“One of such solutions is the construction of mega 3,000-capacity custodial villages in six geo-political zones of the country. The one for the South-South is in Bori, not far from here in Rivers.

“The ones for the North-West in Janguza, Kano and the North-Central, in Karshi, Abuja, are ready. Hopefully, we shall inaugurate the one in Kano in a few days, before our departure.

“Even work is steadily going on in the others and has reached appreciable level.