The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola says state governments will now be feeding and accommodating inmates in their states.
He said this followed the recent constitutional amendment which placed Correctional Services on the concurrent list.
Aregbesola gave the insight while speaking at a 2-day High-Level Conference on Decongestion and Corrections Management, on Thursday in Abuja.
He said: “This simply means that states are now empowered to establish their own Correctional Services and facilities.
“States which do not have correctional facilities would have to pay the Federal Government for the feeding and accommodation of their inmates.”
According to him, the development is a huge relief to the federal government which used to shoulder the burden of accommodating and feeding inmates.
In 2023, the federal government had earmarked N22.44 billion to feed inmates across 244 correctional facilities in the country.
The minister lamented that the huge amount was draining the purse of the government at the centre.
Aregbesola said: “These facilities are being run by the Federal Government. It should be noted that the criminal justice system of Nigeria makes provision for state and federal offences.
“However, until the amendment of the Constitution, only the Federal Government was in charge of custodial centres.
“With the amendment of the Constitution, states are now empowered to build correctional centres and facilities to house offenders who are convicted and sentenced for committing state offences.
“Where states are unable to build custodial centres, it is believed that they can suggest ways to collaborate with the Federal Government in feeding and housing these state offenders.”
Aregbesola said the conference had brought to the fore applicable laws to aid the reform of correctional services, including custodial and non-custodial measures .
He said that Section 12 (4-12) of the NCoS Act, gave the Service the powers to reject inmates when custodial centres are full.
“It is hoped that the above measure will curb the dumping tendencies leading to overcrowding of the custodial centres”, the Minister said.
The Controller General, Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS), Haliru Nababa said that the sad cases of jail breaks had claimed the lives of of officers and inmates, and escape of prisoners.
Nababa said that the trend, posed a grave threat to the sovereignty and prosperity of the country.
“However, we are not resting on our oars to ensure that we stem the tide.
“We have stepped-up security in and around our Custodial Centres by fortification of access controls”, Nababa said.
NAN
