12th November, 2023
By Polycarp Auta/Gabriel Yough
The Plateau Command of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) says there are 129 inmates currently on death row in the various custodial centres in the state.
ASC Godfrey Longdiem, the command’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Sunday in Jos.
According to Longdiem, the figure consists of 128 males and one female, adding that 700 inmates are awaiting trial in the various prison facilities across the state.
“We also have 700 inmates who are awaiting trial in our various facilities, and these consist of 691 males and nine females,” Longdiem claimed.
He further explained that those convicted for short terms were 55 and those serving long-term sentences were 192.
Longdiem said those serving life sentences were 49, adding that there were no minors among them.
Also speaking with NAN in Jos, Mr Steve Aluko, the Executive Director, Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO), who decried the dearth of prison facilities, called for reforms in the sector.
Aluko stressed that custodial centres all over Nigeria were in dire need of a total overhaul.
“This is given the deteriorating condition of the country’s correctional centres that have featured more inmates awaiting trial than those actually convicted.
“Certainly, the Nigerian prison system is in dire need of urgent reforms to rid it of the perennial problem of congestion and its adverse consequences on the health, wellbeing and human rights of the inmates,’’ he said.