The Federal Government says it spends N1 million annually to cater for each inmate at the correctional facilities in the country.
Sola Fasure, the Media Adviser to the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, made this known in a statement on Saturday in Abuja.
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According to the statement, the minister said this while inaugurating a 20-bed COVID-19 Crisis Intervention Fund Hospital and Equipment at the Maximum Security Custodial Centre, Port Harcourt.
The minister said that the project would be an enduring legacy and a testimony of the utmost importance the Federal Government had so far taken corrections, the welfare of inmates, and the staff.
Aregbesola added that President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration had primarily addressed inmates contracting diseases in custodial centers.
“The custodial centers were frighteningly centers 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 not only have well-manned clinics and well-stocked pharmacies, the inmates at the custodial centers now have access to excellent medical care beyond the centers,” he said.
The minister also decried the enormous challenges of running correctional services with huge demands for infrastructure, equipment, and maintaining the welfare of inmates.
He, however, assured that the Federal Government had provided a long-term solution to the challenges.
“This center 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 centers where we currently have congestion.
“The facilities and personnel are overstretched, but we are coping and providing long-term solutions to this challenge.
“One such solution 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 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 a few days before our departure.
“Even work is steadily going on in the others and has reached an appreciable level.
“Let me reiterate that the Federal Government will stop feeding incarcerated inmates for breaching state laws. As you commence your budget process for next year, include feeding of your inmates,” he said.
Aregbesola said that he did not doubt that the facility would go a long way in addressing the medical concerns of inmates and correctional service personnel.
The minister commended the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) management and staff for working hard to keep the virus away.
He added that the new hospital was an intervention to make robust healthcare for those in custody and the NCoS staff.
Aregbesola said that the beauty of all the interventions by other reforms in the NCoS would translate to security, peace, and tranquillity in and around the centers and, ultimately, the entire country.
(NAN)
