Apparently disturbed by the spate of attacks and threats of more attacks on Custodial Centres by terrorists groups, officers the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCOS) have identified decay of the structures and infrastructures of prison facilities as responsible for the incessant jailbreaks in the country.
According to them, the dilapidated prison structures built by colonial masters with mud blocks and walls which are yet to be rebuilt to meet global standard make quite easy for the terrorists to gain access to the prison facilities.
Some prison warders who spoke with LEADERSHIP Sunday said the overpopulated and ancient prison facilities make it difficult for the service to achieve its objectives.
The officers revealed that the service has so far lost about over 45 officers, including a retired Comptroller General, to Boko Haram terrorists, while more than 220 of their colleagues were injured.
One of the officers did not want his name in print said, “There is general decay of the structures and infrastructures of the Nigeria Prison Service. Most of the prisons today have been in existence since the colonial period and some of them are made up of mud walls, examples are the ones in Katsina, our Kano prison, Delta and others.
“It is true that existing prisons are bulging. It is also true that the facilities have decayed. Even more undeniable is the fact that facilities built by colonial administrations have no provisions to restrain convicts in a freer realm. But more worrisome is the fact that we now have prisoners that are more sophisticated and daring than those hired to keep and retrain them.
“Moreover, those outside prison walls that are determined to free some inmates have acquired greater capacity than the protection system around the prison walls. They disclosed.
Another officer who also spoke on condition of anonymity said, “In the past five years, at least a dozen prison facilities across the country have witnessed violent attacks with thousands of inmates released. Many of these inmates who are still at large include the condemned and those serving life terms.”
While appealing to the minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbeola, to hasten the completion of ongoing work in the construction of modern prisons facilities in the six geo-political zones of the country, they said the move will, no doubt, address some of the challenges which ranges congestion occasioned by the inability of the judiciary to dispense justice to awaiting trials inmates.
“For us, what should particularly concern the authorities is that the tempo of attacks seems to have heightened in the past one year.
According to another prison officer, “the training and equipment of our prison guards need updating in line with the current state of our security ecosystem.
“More importantly, the trend in which our ever-frequent breakdown of social peace and order is accompanied by attacks on prison facilities is of deep concern. But when the storming of prisons and freeing of inmates become an act in the service of freedom, then we are all endangered,” he added.
Also speaking, another warder further said, “Another problem we have is the issue of congestion. This is aside from the high population of condemned convicts which is a major risk factor. As a matter of fact, it increases tension that’s why we are calling for urgent solutions.
The disturbed officers who acknowledged that some of the challenges confronting the Service were as old as the service itself, said, the challenges persist because of negligence of some staff.
“On our part as officers who vowed to protect custodial facilities, we will do all we can to see how we can improve on these conditions. On prison congestion.”
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